The Reigning Huntzberger
by monique42
Summary: Picks up in Blame Booze and Melville as if Rory and Logan steal the boat but don't get arrested. How will their relationship change when tragedy strikes and Logan becomes the reigning Huntzberger? Sophie with some JJ
1. Two Have Class and Another Dies

**The Reigning Huntzberger.**

A/N: Some of the dialogue in this chapter and some others is taken from episodes, in this one from A House Is Not A Home. It is only a little bit and it just worked better than anything I wrote myself. Enjoy!

_Chapter 1: Two Have Class, Another Dies._

Rory and Logan had been out at sea for a while now, casually talking and enjoying each other's company but Logan was sensing that something was wrong with Rory. She seemed somewhat distracted and her smiles were strained and he in her eyes he could see a lot of pain and confusion. He knew what Rory did not always want to talk about what was bothering her but he needed to know. "Rory is everything OK?" he finally asked, concerned.

"Yeah fine," she said distractedly, leaving Logan less than convinced.

"It's just that you showed up at the marina looking pretty flustered and upset and you wanted to steal this boat and well you never did explain how you got away from Friday night dinner," said Logan.

"OK first of all we are simply 'borrowing' the boat and well I didn't get away from Friday night dinner early because I never went. I just came straight here from the Gazette," said Rory.

"So the last place you where was at the paper?" Logan figured out.

"Yes."

"Shadowing my father?"

"Yes."

Logan sighed, his head dropping slightly, sure that he had pinpointed the problem, "What'd he do?"

"Nothing, he didn't do anything," said Rory, again unconvincingly.

"I should have known something happened, the way you showed up at Honor's party like that. I should have known," said Logan, half to himself. "Just tell me what he said Rory, what happened to get you so upset?"

"It's stupid," complained Rory, "I feel stupid."

"Rory..."

"I overreacted," she insisted. "You'll think I'm three."

"Tell me," asked Logan compellingly, a worried look in his eyes.

Rory sighed and folded her arms, looking down at her feet, unable to meet Logan's gaze "He just…doesn't think that I've got what it takes to be a journalist. He says he knows when someone has it, and I… apparently do not have it." Saying this aloud was clearly difficult for her, like admitting her own lack of talent and equally each word pained Logan, knowing that it was his father's fault she felt like this.

"He said that to you?" said Logan, incredulous, it was even worse than he has suspected.

"Yeah," Rory nodded, shuffling her feet uncomfortably.

"I knew it! I knew this was going to happen. I didn't want you to take that internship," he told her, clearly angry with his father.

"I had to take the internship. Your father's the top guy in the business," Rory reminded him.

"My father is a jackass! He's a bully! He has zero interest in people's feelings. It's always just say what you feel, right or wrong, who the hell cares who you hurt," he ranted, shaking his head with contempt. "As soon as we get back to land I'm going to go talk to him about it."

"Logan, no," Rory pleaded.

Logan wrapped his arms around her waist and carefully brushed a strand of hair off her face, speaking softly to her, "You're my girlfriend, Rory, he should have treated you better than that."

"I don't want you to say anything!" she protested, not wanting to discuss it any further, she just wanted to forget about it and they way she was feeling.

"I have to!" Logan insisted. "It is my right and my duty as your knight in shining armour, " he told her, looking down at her with a small smile.

"Well as much as I appreciate the gallantry and all I'm fine, really," Rory assured him. "I don't want to come between you and your father."

"Trust me, this couldn't widen the rift between me and 'daddy dearest,' hell a nuclear bomb couldn't make us more estranged," he joked. "Rory he had no right to say what he did to you. For one thing you are a damn good journalist, your article on the LDB alone was enough to prove that to me..."

"Logan..."

"No let me finish," said Logan. "You are amazing Rory Gilmore and if he can't see that then he shouldn't be the 'top guy in the business' because he doesn't have a clue what the hell he is talking about."

"Forgive me if I can't help but think your judgement on this matter is a little biased," said Rory.

"Why would you think that?"

"Because such flattery usually ensures you getting laid tonight," Rory joked.

"Nah, you're coming home with me regardless," said Logan with a smirk. "If my opinion is in anyway biased it wouldn't be because we are sleeping together, it would be because I am falling for you." Stunned, Rory at him with a look of surprise but Logan ignored it and continued talking. "And part of the reason behind that is your talent, your drive, your..."

"Smoking hot body?" asked Rory with a grin, her eyes dancing. She could not believe that Logan was wearing his heart on his sleeve like this, she had not seen this coming. She was still in a state of disbelief that he, Logan Huntzberger, reigning playboy of Yale had settled down for her never mind the revelation that he was falling for her. Maybe Paris was right, maybe she was Annette Benning.

"Geez I try to open up and be sincere and you turn it dirty with your filthy mind...but yeah, I'd say that's at least in the top five reasons," laughed Logan, before looking at her with all the sincerity he could muster. "I'm not telling you my father is wrong to humour you Ace, I'm saying it because he _is_ wrong. Confronting him about this and telling him what a jerk off he is, is about the principle of it."

Rory sighed and rested her head on Logan's chest, letting him pull her closer to him as she wrapped her arms around him, securing the embrace. "There are no principles out at sea, there's just you and me," she said dreamily. She moved her head so that she could gain access to his lips. They shared a soft, gentle kiss when her phone started to ring. Pulling out her cell, Rory saw that it was her mother calling. "I'm going to take this," she said to Logan.

"Hey, if you are allowed phone calls at sea I should be allowed principle," he debated.

"Hi mom," said Rory, answering and ignoring Logan.

"Hey kid," came Lorelai's voice from the other end of the line, "Are you OK? Where are you?"

"I'm fine, I'm with Logan."

"You do realise you are supposed to be here at Friday night dinner, don't you? Haven't we discussed about how you can't leave mommy alone with grandma for too long?"

"Yeah sorry, I um...got caught up at the paper," lied Rory. "I'm on my way now but it will still be a while before I get there."

"Rory!"

"Sorry mom but it is what it is, I can't get there any sooner." Rory noticed Logan mouthing something to her. "Mom, can you hold on a second?" Rory lowered her cell, "What?" she asked Logan.

"Do you want me to go with you?" he offered. "I mean Honor's engagment party has probably already sailed away and I couldn't possibly send you to Friday night dinner alone after the day you've had."

"You don't have to," said Rory.

"I want to," Logan assured her.

"So...you're hungry?"

"Starving! You know me too well Ace, I might just have to have you killed."

Rory rolled her eyes and raised her cell phone again. "Mom? Hi, could you ask grandma if it would be OK if I brought Logan with me? OK, thanks, see you soon, bye!" Rory cut off the call and put her phone back in her bag.

"Well?" asked Logan.

"I think I actually heard grandma starting to measure how far apart the tapers on the table are for you, her new guest of honour."

"Great 'cause you know food just doesn't taste the same unless there are tapers are exactly six inches apart," said Logan.

"Yeah, I think I've heard that somewhere."

"That's because you've got class," said Logan, kissing her. "Alright then, let's get this boat turned around and back to where it belongs before anyone realises it is gone."

"What if they already have?"

"No worries, I've had practise outrunning the coast guard police," Logan reminded her.

"That's because you have got class," joked Rory. "Though didn't that encounter involve you sinking the yacht?"

"You know it was not actually me that did the sinking and besides it was a completely different type of boat and hey, but practise is still practise Ace and if at first you don't succeed..."

"Then skydiving is not for you," finished Rory, shaking her head seriously, making him laugh.

"So thanks for telling me what happened with my father," said Logan. "I didn't like it when I thought you were holding out on me there."

"Well to be truthful, I didn't want to tell you. If you hadn't have asked I doubt I would have volunteered the information," said Rory. "I just want to forget this, I want it to go away."

"Hey. If this relationship thing is going to work, then it goes both ways. You have to tell me why were committing a felony before we do it. Not that that's going to stop us, but at least I'll have all the facts, OK?" he asked with a smile on his face as he stroked her cheek with his thumb.

"OK, I'm sorry," said Rory with a small smile.

"Cause I know I mess about a lot and make a lot of jokes but you know I'm there for you, right?"

"I know," said Rory, with a grateful smile. "And you will be dutifully thanked at a later time," she said, kissing him.

"See, I knew that you'd be coming home with me tonight," he grinned. "Alright then, back to the mainland we go!"

………………………………..

"Sorry I'm late Grandma," said Rory as she entered with living room, holding Logan's hand.

"Nonsense! You were working!" said Emily. "And Logan I'm so pleased to be seeing you again so soon!"

"Thanks for letting me join you ladies on such short notice Emily. The prospect of some more of that delicious pot roast was enough to convince me to wrangle my way into a dinner invite," said Logan, smiling at her. "And Lorelai, lovely to see you again," said Logan nodding at her.

"Same," said Lorelai, taking a sip of her martini.

"Rory, Logan can I get you anything to drink?" asked Emily, walking over to the bar.

"A neat scotch would be great if it isn't too much trouble Emily," said Logan.

"Not at all!" Emily assured him, "Club soda for you Rory?"

"Yes please Grandma," said Rory, sitting down beside Logan on the sofa opposite Lorelai.

"So how's the internship going?" asked Emily.

Logan looked at Rory, concern across his face as her smile faded and she looked down at her lap. Logan took her hand in his are stroked it with his thumb in a comforting motion. Lorelai noticed this and frowned, realising that something wasn't right. "Well actually Rory was just telling me that she was thinking of maybe looking for another internship," said Logan, answering for Rory before Emily got too suspicious.

"Why? I thought things were going well there," said Lorelai.

"Yeah," said Rory, relieved Logan had stepped in to give her an angle to work from. "They were but I'm not so sure anymore. I just don't think it is going to work out there. I mean it was so nice of Logan's dad to give me the opportunity but I think for the summer it would be better if I tried being more independent and getting one by my own means."

"Well that sounds very sensible," said Emily, handing the couple their drinks.

"Yeah, it does," said Rory, perking up as she thought about this idea. She had only said it to move the conversation along but it did not sound like a bad idea. It would be good to work for another professional and get their opinion. No matter how low she was feeling at the moment she needed to maintain some perspective and thankfully Logan was being very helpful and understanding. She looked at Logan gratefully as he squeezed her hand and smiled lovingly at her, unaware of Lorelai's gaze. It was then that the maid entered and announced that dinner was ready. "Thank you Heather," Emily said to the girl before standing up.

"Is there somewhere I could go to quickly wash up before dinner?" asked Logan.

"Sure, I'll show you then go check the maid is serving us with the right china," said Emily.

"Be back in a minute Ace," said Logan giving her a quick kiss on the cheek before following Emily out of the room.

"So what is really going on?" whispered Lorelai anxiously as her and Rory walked into the dining room.

"What do you mean?" asked Rory.

"I saw the look on your face when Mom asked about the internship and then Logan jumping in and answering for you. I mean what happened?" asked Lorelai, concerned.

"I don't want to talk about it now, Grandma will be back any minute," said Rory.

"Come on, give me the Reader's Digest version at least," pleaded Lorelai.

Rory sighed, "Well basically Mr. Huntzberger wanted to tell me how I was getting on and well let's just say in his opinion I wasn't doing as well as I thought I was and I was pretty upset and met up with Logan who when I told him got really mad and was insisting I let him confront his father and then you rang."

"Rory, I don't believe that," said Lorelai taken back. "What did Logan's dad say to you exactly?"

"Mom, you asked for Reader's Digest and I gave you that."

"Yeah you're right, but you will definitely tell me later?" asked Lorelai.

"I promise," said Rory.

"Good, cause you know mommy has to hurt the people who upset you," said Lorelai, a sympathetic look on her face.

"You're not the only one, " said Rory, causing Lorelai to raise a quizzical eyebrow just as Logan entered the room. "So what'd I miss?" he asked, taking his seat beside Rory. "Nothing much," she said. "Good." Lorelai smiled at Logan, as he gave Rory's shoulder an encouraging squeeze. Maybe he wasn't so bad after all.

………………………………...

At the end of the night, Emily was seeing her guests to the door.

"Bye Grandma," said Rory, hugging her.

"Emily, thanks for a wonderful evening," said Logan, his hand on the small of Rory's back.

"Oh it was nothing, Logan, you are welcome back anytime," Emily told him. "In fact you have a standing invite to Friday night dinners."

"Thank you, I'll be sure to have Ace here inform me when pot roast is on the menu so that I can take you up on that very generous offer," said Logan.

Emily giggled, "'Ace!' What a charming nickname! Lorelai, isn't it a charming nickname?"

"As charming as the Prince. Goodnight mom," said Lorelai, lifting her coat.

"See you next week!" said Emily as she closed the door and left the three in the courtyard.

"So are you two heading back to Yale?" asked Lorelai, walking towards her jeep.

"Yep," said Rory, hugging her mother. "I'll give you a call later."

"OK, love you!" said Lorelai. "Logan, nice seeing you again."

"Same here," said Logan. "Hey wait a minute. Ace why don't you go back home with your mom?"

"Are you trying to get rid of me?" asked Rory, with a smile.

"Drat, foiled again!" said Logan. "No I was just thinking that after the day you've had maybe spending sometime with your mom could be exactly what you need right now. You know you could have one of your infamous movie, pizza and other assorted junk food nights."

"Are you sure?" asked Rory. "I mean what happened to being so sure I was going home with you tonight?"

"Well every now and again my massive ego can lead me to make some pretty rash predictions and I guess that this is one of these times." Smiling, Logan pulled her into a hug and savoured their closeness. He kissed the top of her head then pulled back. "Go, spend some time with your mom. If that's alright with her of course," he said, looking over at Lorelai for confirmation.

She nodded, smiling, "Of course! It's nice having my one and only daughter home, especially when it would seem that she has lots to tell mama. Though Logan you are more than welcome to join us," said Lorelai, causing Rory to turn and look at her with a surprised look.

"It's very tempting but maybe another time," said Logan. "I think I'm going to take a little trip over to the Huntzberger establishment this evening, the newspaper mogul that is my father should be back from Honor's engagement party by now."

"Logan..." started Rory.

"No Ace, I'm going to do this," he said. "I have to. I've put up with a lot from that man over the years and this is the last straw. The straw that broke the camel's back so to speak. You know if the straw was really pretty and damn important and if the camel cared very deeply about the straw and had to stand up to the evil camel owner to defend the straw."

"You're babbling," said Rory, smiling.

"What can I say, I really like straw," Logan grinned, before leaning down to kiss her. "See you tomorrow Ace."

"Can't wait," said Rory, heading to her mother's jeep.

"Goodnight Lorelai," said Logan, getting into the car.

"Bye," said Lorelai. "And hey, you're welcome to pizza and movie night anytime you want."

"Wow, the Gilmore girls are feeling very hospitable tonight," noted Logan as he nodded appreciatively with a smile, before driving off leaving the Gilmore Girls by themselves. "You've certainly changed our tune about Logan," noted Rory as they started driving towards Stars Hollow.

"I guess tonight I just caught a glimpse of what you see in him," said Lorelai. "I mean obviously we didn't get off to the best start with me walking in on you and him about to get jiggy..."

"Mom!" protested Rory.

"Hun, when you're having sex you can't be a prude when someone alludes to it," said Lorelai.

"Anyway where was I? Oh yes and then at Friday night dinner the other week when he stole Mom's antique sewing box and you'd told me about how his family treated you and well... I just flat out didn't like him." said Lorelai. "He came across as one of those rich, snooty, arrogant jerks that was going to mess you around and end up hurting you and I didn't want you to be with someone like that."

"So what changed your mind?" Rory asked.

"Well tonight you said he was ready to defend you honour and stand up to his father and he said as much just there now and all night I couldn't help but notice the way he looks at you and how he kept finding little ways to touch you...Rory that boy is clearly in love with you."

"Mom..." started Rory.

"Rory no," said Lorelai. "I don't care if he hasn't said it, maybe he hasn't even realised it, I mean from what you've said sounds like he's never been in love before but trust me, he is."

Rory blushed and looked down at her lap awkwardly, unsure what to say. "So you're giving him another chance?" she asked.

"Yep," said Lorelai. "I think he's earned it."

"Thanks, that means a lot to me and I'm sure he'll really appreciate it."

"No problem, hun. So do you want to tell me what exactly happened tonight?"

………………………………...

Rory stirred as she heard her cell phone ringing from her bedside table. She looked at the clock and saw that it was 3.18 in the morning. 'Who the hell is ringing me at this time?' she asked as she lifted her cell. "Hello?" she asked groggily.

"Hey, Rory?" came a male voice from the other end. "It's Josh, Honor's fiancé."

"Hi Josh, is everything alright?" she asked in a panic. "Is Logan..."

"He's fine," Josh assured her. "Well physically anyway. We're all at the hospital, I think you should come, Logan's kind of a mess ...Mitchum just died."


	2. Dead Fathers and Vegetables

**The Reigning Huntzberger**

_A/N: _Thank you so much for all your reviews! They were great and I was completely overwhelmed! I don't think I've ever gotten that many reviews before for a single chapter, never mind the first one! Please keep them coming and feel free to mention anything you'd like to see happen or moments that you particularly liked and would like to see more of and I will see what I can do. Thank you so much for all the lovely things you said and I hope you like this chapter as much as you did the last!

_Chapter 2: Dead Fathers and Vegetables._

Logan drove up to the Huntzberger mansion, still in disbelief over what his father had said to Rory. He knew he should have known better, that he should have seen something like this coming but he hadn't. He guessed that he had just thought that maybe things would be different this time around, because Rory was different, he had no idea why or how anyone could say so much as "boo" to her. Logan knocked on the door, rolling his eyes once again at the stupid formalities that rich people insisted upon like knocking and waiting to be let in to your own family home. Not that he considered this place his home. There was nothing warm or welcoming about it. It was cold and filled with the airs and graces his parents had imposed on it. He nodded politely to the maid who let him in, "Mr. Huntzberger, nice to see you this evening, may I take your coat?"

"No thank you Martha, I won't be staying for long. Is my father around?" he asked, his hands in his trouser pockets.

"Yes, your parents returned from Miss Honor's engagement party about fifteen minutes ago," said the maid. "I believe he is in his study. Shall I alert them to your presence?"

"No, I'll just go find him myself," said Logan, heading for the stairs. "Thank you Martha."

"You're welcome Sir," said the maid before going back to dusting.

Logan walked the familiar path to Mitchum's study; this walk had never been a pleasant trip for him. The Huntzberger study was were his father liked to have all his serious chats with his son, about how Logan needed to grow up, stop messing around, ditch his loser friends, stop getting arrested and stop sinking boats. Needless to say Logan had learnt to pay no attention to anything that was said to him in this study. However now, standing outside the familiar mahogany door with an equally familiar sense of dread, Logan fully grasped the seriousness of the Huntzberger study. Taking a deep breath he gently knocked on the door and entered when he heard his father tell him to come in.

"Logan! Well this is a surprise!" said Mitchum, when he looked up from the papers in front of him. "I must have missed you tonight, what happened?"

"I went, I saw, I mingled then I left," said Logan, standing awkwardly at his father's desk. "I met up with Rory then went to the Gilmore's for dinner."

"Oh how is Emily?" asked Mitchum. "It's such a shame she couldn't come to the engagement party, Richard was out of town and she had already planned to have guests."

"She's fine," said Logan, starting to pace as he got bored with his father's small talk. "I notice you didn't bother to ask how Rory is doing."

Mitchum's smile faded and he shifted about in his seat uncomfortably. "Logan, sit down," he suggested, gesturing to the chair facing him.

"I'd rather not if it's quite all right," said Logan. "Why dad? Why did you do it?"

Mitchum sighed, "Logan you know how seriously I take my work. I expect the people who are around me to work as hard as I do and for that to happen they need to be the best. Now if Rory was aspiring to be an assistant then I would definitely want her to be working for me but as a journalist she just wouldn't cut it."

"An assistant?" asked Logan. "Please tell me you did not say that to her."

"I'm afraid I did," admitted Mitchum. "I know you care for the girl, which is why I took no pleasure in telling her what I did but she needed to hear it before she wasted any more of her time pursuing a career that she wasn't cut out for."

"Bullshit!" spat Logan, angrily.

"Watch your language young man," Mitchum warned him.

"No!" said Logan. "You can hide behind your desk and spout out all your crap about doing this for her own good but we both know that's not why you did it. You probably thought 'Hey, haven't crushed anyone lately, how about Rory Gilmore? Yes she'll do nicely, she's sweet enough to take it, I'll get to flex my power and of course there's the added bonus of getting to screw with my son a little more.'"

"Logan, that is enough!" said Mitchum sternly, sick of his son's outburst. "I have nothing against Rory as your girlfriend but I did not want your relationship to compromise my position. She didn't want me too either and I respected that about her so when she became my intern I decided to treat her like any other intern. I told her exactly what I would have to any one who had performed like she had."

"What? You don't think ambition, talent, drive are the qualities of a good reporter?" asked Logan.

"She lacked assertiveness, a willingness to jump in, she lacked fire, moxie."

"You are blind!" said Logan. "Rory is polite, yes, but your shouldn't be fooled by that. She has no bother jumping into the line of fire or digging to get her story. I mean how old is the Life and Death Brigade? In all those years no one, including all the Yale Daily News reporters that went on to be world famous journalists, was ever able to produce a decent story on the Brigade until she came along. She cornered me and told me she knew I was in the LDB, that she knew the names of others that were in it. She had found out loads of facts about us that no one else had ever managed to and told me that unless I gave her the inside scoop she was going to stalk me until she found out more! How can you possibly say she lacks moxie?"

"So a girl wanted to follow you about all day, Logan from what I hear that is not out of the ordinary," said Mitchum, rapidly losing patience with his son. "And you young Brigaders are getting more reckless these days."

"That is not the point," fumed Logan, exasperated with his father.

"Then what is the point?"

"The point is that you are a bully, a jackass, a tyrant and I should have told you this years ago," said Logan.

"Are you quite done?" asked Mitchum.

"No! You're also an arrogant, pig headed, vindictive, ruthless, despotical. . . cruel. . . egotistical. . . butt faced miscreant!" exclaimed Logan, looking slightly sheepish as that last part came out, but recovering quickly and maintaining his angry glare with his father's eyes.

"I have heard enough!" said Mitchum, boiling over with rage. "Listen up Logan because I am through with your amateur dramatics. I know you don't approve of the way I conduct business but I am your father and you will treat me with respect. Journalism is a hard business Logan and you and Miss Gilmore should get used to it or neither of you are going to make it.

I was going to save this speech for the other end of the summer Logan but I think maybe you need to hear it now. I will not be tolerating any more of your antics. This will be the year you graduate Logan. No more month long parties, no more disappearing for a few weeks and turning up off the coast of Hawaii with yet another leggy blonde, no more taking a year out so you can sink a yacht. You are going to start going to meetings, getting you face known about the office, learning about the business and prepare to become part of the Huntzberger newspaper empire."

Logan looked at his father and made a decision. "You know what dad? You can shove your precious empire up your ass. I don't need this crap. I'm sick of you dictating how my life should be and is going to be. I want you out of my life. We're through."

Before Mitchum could say anything Logan turned on his heels and stormed out of the study, slamming the door behind him.

When he made it back to his dorm, Logan threw his jacket aside and loosened his tie as he poured himself a drink. He considered calling Rory but decided against it as it was getting late and she was probably in the middle of a good girly chat with Lorelai. Logan smiled at the thought of this. He liked Lorelai, admired her even. From all the stories Rory had told him, Logan had always thought of Lorelai as a bit of an inspiration to him. After all she had grown up in a similar environment to him and they had both fought against the rules imposed on them. They both resented their parents but the difference was when Lorelai had messed up she'd had the courage to stand up to them and strike out on her own. Logan had never been able to do that, until now at least. Finishing his drink, he headed for bed.

Logan had just started to drift off when he got the call from Honor telling him that their father was being rushed to hospital for a suspected heart attack.

Logan did not know what to do. For a long time he just sat there, in shock, letting the words sink in. Then he sprung into action, and raced to his car, speeding to the hospital, his mind completely blank. Rushing inside, he didn't bother to park his car. He slammed his hands on the front desk when no one there could tell him anything other than what room his father was in. He pressed the button to call for the elevator to take him to the fourth floor and after what seemed like hours when it never arrived he made a dash for the stairs. Looking around him he took a left and headed for where the surly woman at the front desk and directed him to.

When he got there, the first thing he saw was Josh cradling a crying Honor on the seats outside what Logan assumed was Mitchum's room. Josh looked up and shook his head sympathetically when he saw Logan and it was at that moment that Logan knew he was too late.

When Honor realised he was there she got up and walked over to him, seeking solace in her brother's arms but still in shock, Logan could not seem to return the embrace as fully as he should have. Things seemed to be happening in slow motion to Logan as he returned his sister to her fiancé and headed into the room where his father's body was. His mother was sitting on the chair beside Mitchum's bed, sobbing as she desperately clung to her dead husband's hand. " Logan!" she cried, throwing herself at her son, wrapping her arms around him. "He's gone, he's really gone."

She continued weeping as Logan led her back to her chair and sat down beside her, taking her hand in his, but Logan did not cry. He couldn't. For as he sat there looking at his father's lifeless body and the reality of the situation began to sink in, Logan felt no sadness, no grief - only guilt.

………………………………...

As Rory entered the hospital, she slipped on the gold ring she had lifted on her way out of the house and headed for the front desk. "Hello could you tell me which room Mitchum Huntzberger is in?" she asked politely.

"Are you family?" asked the receptionist.

"Yes, I'm his daughter in law," said Rory, who had been told by Josh what to say to make sure she got in. Once Mitchum had passed away the hospital had been instructed to be very careful about who they let in in case any of the press tried to get in and gave them only a restricted number of names of people to let through.

The woman raised a sceptical eyebrow, "Name?"

"Rory Gilmore-Huntzberger."

The woman tapped on her computer for a moment, "Yes OK. He's on the fourth floor, turn left, third room down."

"Thank you," said Rory, heading for the elevator. She followed the directions the receptionist had gave her and saw Josh with his arm around a pale Honor, who was sipping water from a plastic cup. "Rory!" said Honor, going to her brother's girlfriend and hugging her.

"I'm so sorry Honor," said Rory.

"Thank you," said Honor, pulling back. "And thank you for coming, I'm really worried about Logan. He hasn't said a word since he arrived. He's just sat in there with a blank expression on his face, like he is in some kind of trance."

"Should I go in?" asked Rory, unsure of what to do.

"Yes, by all means, I think he really needs you right now," said Honor.

"OK," said Rory, heading for the room where she found Logan staring into space as his mother, who was sitting beside him slept. "Oh Logan, I'm so sorry," she said, taking a few steps into the room.

"Ace, what are you doing here?" asked Logan hoarsely, as he stood up and hugged her.

"Josh rang, told me what had happened and I came straight here," Rory explained.

"Thank you," he croaked, as he squeezed her tight, closing his eyes, not wanting to let her go. When he eventually did, he pulled up another seat for her so she could sit beside him. He wrapped an arm around her, trying to keep her as close as he could as her head rested on his chest and his head on top of hers.

She did not say anything and he did not need her to, just her being there, next to him was a great comfort. He listened as her breathing evened out at around six and even broke a small smile when she stirred and woke up around eight.

"How long was I out?" she whispered, noticing Shira was no longer in the room.

"About two hours," said Logan.

"Sorry," said Rory, feeling bad for falling asleep.

"Don't worry about it Ace."

"Did you get any sleep?" she asked, frowning when he shook his head.

"I'm fine, Ace. It's a good thing you woke up, the funeral home will be here to pick up the body any minute now, mom is already back at the house trying to make arrangements."

"Is there anything I can help with?" asked Rory.

"You are helping just by being here."

………………………………

Rory gently opened the door to the Huntzberger study and found Logan slumped in the chair behind the desk. "Hey, people have been asking about you," said Rory softly.

In had been a difficult couple of days and she was very worried for Logan who had to bury his father the next day. Once Mitchum's body had been lifted by the funeral home, Rory had went with Logan back to the Huntzberger house were everyone had started making the funeral arrangements.

Logan had not said very much and Rory was worried about him, his eyes had lost their sparkle and his face was more than not blank. She knew that this was a natural reaction, after all his father and just died but he hadn't ate, slept or cried in over two days, during which time she had rarely left his side but she was beginning to think it would be better if he was showing some real emotion other than the blank face which she knew was just Logan's way of trying to keep it together, Rory did not want to push him though and knew he would grieve when he was ready.

In the meantime, Rory was desperate to do anything she could to help him or the rest of the family. At Logan's request she had even went to the scheduled press conference with him to give details about Mitchum's passing and the funeral to the press.

"So what's new?" he mumbled. Over the last few days, anytime he had tried to escape for a little time alone with his own thoughts, someone would be sent looking for him to see where he was.

"Honor sent me to find out if you had ate anything yet," said Rory.

"Do me a favour and tell her you saw me eat a sandwich or something," said Logan.

"She's just worried about you, we all are."

He leaned back and sighed. "Mom asked me to give the eulogy at the funeral tomorrow and I have nothing. I mean you know more about the man than I do yet I have to give a tribute to him. What am I supposed to say? 'Mitchum Huntzberger. Lousy father. Cheating Husband. Good Businessman. Hated Peas.'"

"I can help you if you want." Rory offered. "I still remember some of that stuff I Googled on him."

"Really? That would be great, I mean the only other thing my mom asked me to do was sort out the caterers for the wake and I already messed that up."

"Logan..." started Rory nervously. "What food is being served at the wake?"

"Pigs in blankets and an extra large vat of pea soup," said Logan sheepishly. "When they asked I kind of froze up."

"Where's the number and I will ring them back," said Rory, with a small, sympathetic smile.

Logan looked up at her and pulled her into his lap. "You are truly amazing do you know that?"

"It's been mentioned," Rory admitted as she rested her head on top of his.

"Ugh I don't know how you are putting up with me at the minute, I'm such a mess right now," said Logan, a wrinkle in his brow.

"Logan you shouldn't be hard on yourself, it's completely understandable, you just lost a parent," said Rory. "I can't even imagine what you are going through."

"You are the only thing keeping me together at the moment Ace," said Logan with a sigh. "I don't know how I would get through all of this without you."

"And you won't have to," she assured him.

"Can you stay the night?" Logan asked, after a few moments of comfortable silence in each other's arms.

"Of course," said Rory. "I'll call my mom and have her drop by with a change of clothes in the morning."

"Thank you," said Logan, giving her a quick peck on the lips as she stood up.

"More than welcome," said Rory. "Now where's the caterer's number?"

………………………………

It was around 3am that Rory finally managed to convince Logan to go to bed. Half an hour later he was still wide awake and Rory had resolved not to sleep until she was sure that Logan had drifted off. They were lying on the bed in the dark, in silence, facing each other, their legs entangled under the covers and their fingers intertwined.

"I came over here after you went home with your mom you know," said Logan abruptly. Rory's eyes immediately went to his and saw the pain in them, "I went to his study and I yelled at him." Stroking his arm, Rory looked at him sympathetically as he continued to speak. "I called him a bunch of horrible names, told him to shove his dynasty that he had worked so hard to create up his ass because we were through and then I left." Logan's bottom lip began to tremble as he spoke, pain dripping from every word and Rory felt helpless to do anything other than listen as the distraught young man in front of her poured his heart out. "'We're through,' were the last words I ever said to my father, my father who only ever wanted the best for me and what did I do? I threw it all away."

"Logan come on, please don't do this to yourself," whispered Rory, as a few tears began to roll down her cheeks, her heart aching for him.

"It's all my fault. I mean he always said that I would be the death of him but I never thought. . . " Logan trailed off as he started to choke up.

"Logan this is not your fault," said Rory softly, but emphatically, as she shuffled as close to Logan as she could.

"I'm a horrible son, he deserved better. For Christ's sake, he might not have been there all the time but the man still raised me and the most personal detail I know about him is his taste in vegetables? How messed up is that! I didn't respect him like I should have and then I gave him a heart attack that killed him." Unable to keep the emotions that had been brewing inside him for over 48 hours at bay for any longer, Logan finally gave in and cried for his father.

"Oh Logan," said Rory quietly, wrapping her arms around him and pulling him into her embrace, making gentle, comforting noises as Logan stopped being Logan H. Huntzberger, son and heir of the late newspaper mogul Mitchum Huntzberger, keeping it together for his family and became a son grieving the loss of his father as he cried himself to sleep.

_A/N:_ So, kind of a glum chapter but hopefully the next one will be picking things up a bit. By the way don't get used to such prompt updates, I just feel strangely inspired for this story at the moment and with all the reviews I kind of felt complelled to. Plus I hate the time as I am off school on a four day weekend for St. Patrick's day break. (It's one of the perks of being Irish!) Please keep reviewing! You guys rock!


	3. Funeral Bell Blues

**The Reigning Huntzberger**

_A/N:_ Again thank you so much for all your wonderful reviews, they mean so much to me! Anyone who left a review that I felt warranted a reply I sent you one of those message things, hope they answered your questions. Oh by the way this is probably the average waiting time for a new chapter, sorry if you were expecting this chapter sooner but it is really long. I'm going to start to get things moving a little more next chapter so anything suggestions let me know. Anyway thanks again and I hope you enjoy!

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_Chapter 3: Funeral Bell Blues_

Rory watched as Logan began to stir, rolling on to his side before his eyes fluttered open. "Hey there," said Rory with a smile.

"Hey," said Logan back. "What time is it?"

"A little after seven, don't worry you have plenty of time," Rory assured him.

"Good," said Logan. "It would be nice just to stay like this a little while longer. I'm not quite sure how to face the rest of the day."

"I don't think you are supposed to know," said Rory. "I think today is supposed to be hard and depressing but somehow you just have to get through it."

"I know," whispered Logan, his mind clearly wondering. "It's weird," he said after a few moments of silence.

"What is?" asked Rory, curious.

"No matter how much you resent someone, even borderline hate them, once you know they are gone it just doesn't matter anymore. My dad and I never got along. I think we were alike in too many ways and that scared me because I didn't want to grow up and become him so I did everything that I could think of that had even a chance of making him mad just so that I felt that I hadn't lived up to his expectations. I have spent so much time complaining about how much of a disappointment I am to him but I think feeling like a failure in his eyes comforted me in this perverted way because it meant that there was less chance of me turning into him.

"Sometimes I think I got into trouble just to wind him up. In high school, he would bring me into his study and tell me very sternly, 'Logan, you can't keep disappearing to New York for three days with all your friends without telling us.' I would look apologetic and promise him it would never happen again then within the fortnight we would be right back in the study, with me getting yelled at for taking an inpromtu five days in Boston." Logan broke into a smile as he spoke. "He would get so mad at me but I just found it strangely amsuing. It was almost like a sort of game to see how far I could push him before I got grounded or had my credit cards taken away."

"God forbid," Rory teased gently, happy to see him smile.

"But now I am so afraid," Logan admitted. "I'm afraid that I'm going to miss him."

"You shouldn't be afraid of that," said Rory. "It's natural to miss someone who was a huge part of your life in one way or another."

"It just feels weird that after twenty two years of trying to keep him out of my life I suddenly feel like I'm missing something now that he's gone."

"Well I don't think losing a parent is an exact science, there is no set way that you are supposed to feel," Rory told him. "My dad and his father never got along, he resented him for trying to control his life."

"Sounds familiar."

"But when his dad died he was a wreck. He felt overwhelmed and upset and he grieved. It may feel weird and strange but its natural."

Logan sighed, "You are probably right."

"Those are good odds," Rory smiled.

"Well I guess all good things must come to an end. I think it's time to get up."

"Are you sure you are ready?" asked Rory.

"'In Omnia Paratus,' remember?"

"Yeah well I think there is kind of a fine print on the LDB shield that means you are allowed to be unprepared for losing a parent," said Rory gently.

"Yeah well I'm as ready as I'll ever be," said Logan, kissing her on the top of the head as he sat up and ran his hand threw his hair, mentally preparing himself for the day ahead.

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"Coffee! Coffee! Coffee!" said Lorelai as she burst into Luke's.

"Good morning to you too," said Luke, reaching for the coffe pot and a mug.

Lorelai lent across the counter and kissed him. "Hi Luke. Good morning Luke. Give me coffee, coffee, coffee, Luke!" she chirped, sitting down on a stool.

"What's your rush this morning?" asked Luke, giving her a large mug full of hot coffee which she gulped down eagerly.

"It's the funeral today so Rory asked me to drop her off some clean clothes."

"She stay with Logan last night?" asked Luke.

"Yeah, she seems really worried about him."

"Of course she is, the kid just lost his father," said Luke. "Do you want me to get you a cup to go as well?"

"I love you," said Lorelai, grinning at him.

"That is the curse of being the supplier of the coffee."

"A curse? Are you calling my complete dependence on you a curse cause most people would see it as a blessing and if you don't come around to my way of thinking you could be getting pretty lonley there mister!" Lorelai warned him.

"You can't leave me, your dependent on me remember?" teased Luke.

"Drat, foiled again!" complained Lorelai, checking her watch before quickly downing the rest of her coffee and grabbing the paper cup Luke had filled for her. "Better go," she told him, giving him another kiss. "See you later tonight?"

"Definitely," Luke confirmed.

"Great see you then!"

'Woah,' thought Lorelai to herself as she pulled up at the Huntzberger mansion. She had seen a lot of pretty impressive houses in her time, including the one she had grown up in but this one blew the rest of them out of the water. She had known that Logan was rich, really rich, but she had not fully comprehended it until that moment. She rang the bell and politely smiled as a maid answered the door. "Hi, my daughter Rory Gilmore is here, I have a few things I need to give to her."

The maid stepped back to let Lorelai through and closed the door behind her. "Wait here just one moment please and I will go alert Ms. Gilmore of your presence," the maid told her, walking off. A few moments later, Rory appeared. "Hi mom!" said Rory when she saw her mom standing in the foyer.

"Hey kid, hows it going?" asked Lorelai.

"Well...it's going," said Rory. "Come on, we can talk in the drawing room." Rory led her mother out of the foyer and down a hall before turning into a richly decorated room, furnished with plush sofas and intricate rugs.

"How do you find your way about this place?" asked Lorelai, looking arounf her in amazement.

"It took a while but I've got the hang of it in the past few days, well the main rooms anyway," said Rory. "I got lost this morning looking for the bathroom but thankfully I stumbled into a different bathroom."

"Hey if I pull out one of those books over there will the bookshelf spin around and transport me to a different wing of the house?"

"I think so but I haven't figured out which book yet," said Rory.

"Shame," said Lorelai before becoming more serious. "So how is Logan holding up?"

"It's hard to tell," said Rory. "He had kind of a break down in the early hours of this morning but at least he got some sleep."

"Well that's good," said Lorelai, encouragingly. "Him holding up all his emotions like that wasn't healthy."

"He thinks it's his fault."

"What is?"

"Mitchum dying, he thinks it's his fault."

"That's ridiculous!" said Lorelai.

"I know but he had a huge fight with his dad a few hours before he had the heart attack and he's feeling really guilty about it," Rory told her. "And of course I feel guilty because I was the reason that he had a fight with him. Plus I don't know what to say or do, I just feel so helpless and then I feel guilty about feeling guilty and helpless because it's selfish when everyone around me has just lost a member of their family!"

"Oh hun," said Lorelai, comfortingly. "There is nothing you really can do in this situation other than being there and you have and I'm sure Logan is really grateful for that."

"He is, he keeps thanking me and I feel bad because I haven't really done anything to deserve it."

"See, he appreciates it which means something is working. You should probably get back to him," said Lorelai. "Here are your clothes and your make up bag."

"Bless you," said Rory, taking the bag off her.

"So give me a call if there is anything I can get or do for you or Logan, anything at all," said Lorelai sincerely.

"Alright, I'll call you later mom." Rory and Lorelai hugged before Lorelai left the drawing room only to pop her head back in. "One question, how the hell do I get out of this place?"

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"Hey, your mom wanted me to tell you that we are all leaving in five minutes," Rory informed Logan who was nervously fumbling through the pockets of his suit.

"OK, just looking for my keys," he said.

"You don't need them," said Rory. "We're going in the car with Honor, Josh and your mom, remember?"

Logan sighed, looking annoyed with himself as Rory walked over to him with a sympathetic look. "It's going to be OK."

"I don't know how," said Logan. "What are you doing?" he asked as Rory began to fiddle with his tie.

"I'm adjusting your tie," she told him.

"Why? At one of the many boarding schools I attended in my youth there was actually a mandatory class on tying the perfect Windsor knot in a tie. I rejected a lot of the knowledge I learnt there but this thing in particular lodged itself in my brain and stuck with me. If tying the perfect tie was an olympic event I'd be walking away with gold."

"Yeah but in the movies the girl always has to adjust the guy's tie before any sort of event."

"True," said Logan, a small smile threatening to curl the ends of his lips. "You look beautiful by the way," said Logan, looking at the plain black skirt and sweater Rory was wearing.

"Thanks," said Rory. "Though making a fashion statement wasn't exactly high on the agenda."

"Your beauty is effortless," Logan assured her. "I guess we should be going."

"Yep," said Rory. "I'll go get me my coat." She kissed him again before giving his hand a comforting squeeze. "You are going to get through this."

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"Logan, nice to finally meet you, I'm just sorry it had to be under such dreadful circumstances. I'm Nigel Carrmichael, I am very sorry for you loss, Mitchum was a great man."

Logan kept his false smile in place as yet another man in a suit that worked with his father introduced themselves. The sucking up had begun. The wake had been in full swing for over an hour now and that entire time Logan had been held up by friends and co-workers of his father coming over and extending their sympathies. While on some level Logan appreciated this, he was annoyed that he had not yet had the chance to talk to his friends, some of whom he had spotted earlier. The entire affair was really taking its toll and Logan knew the only remedy would be some quality time with his friends but unfortunately he could see no signs of an escape route on the horizon. Thankfully Rory had remained by his side and he was able to use her as a distraction when he did not want to be probed any further by business men in suits, such as the one in front of him.

"That he was," said Logan, shaking the man's hand. "From what I hear you are a very talented young man," he said. "We are all looking forward to watch you take over your father's legacy."

"Have you met my girlfriend Rory Gilmore?" Logan asked quickly, trying to dodge the subject.

"No, I don't believe I've had that pleasure," said the man, shaking her hand. "How do you do?"

"Fine thanks," said Rory politely.

"Gilmore? You aren't by any chance Richard Gilmore's granddaughter that I heard so much about when Richard was renewing my insurance policy, are you?"

"Yes, that would be me," said Rory.

"Your grandfather is a fine man, with excellent taste in cigars," commented Nigel Carrmichael. "I was just speaking to him and Emily earlier."

"Really? I haven't seen them today yet," lied Rory. By now she and Logan had perfected their exit strategy. When Logan introduced Rory to whoever it was that had taken it upon themselves to ask about the details surrounding Logan taking over the business usually asked about Richard and Emily. Although the young couple had spoken to Richard and Emily at the start of the wake, they found that wanting to go find them was the perfect excuse to get away.

"Yes, we really should go look for them and say hello," said Logan. "Thank you for coming, if you'll excuse us," he said to the suit.

"Nice to meet you," said Rory as Logan led her off with his hand on the small of her back.

"If one more of my father's lap dogs introduce themselves to me today I might just scream," said Logan between gritted teeth. "I can't take this ass kissing, you think the suits could take the day off."

"You look tense," said Rory. "Anything I can do?"

"Throw everyone out of here?" Logan suggested before sighing. "Though I doubt that is a possibility."

"You would be correct," said Rory. "Sorry."

"I just want to hang out with my friends and talk, maybe have a drink or two but instead I am stuck here, going through the motions, exchanging pleasantries with endless streams of people I have never met before and don't care to ever see again," said Logan. "I know most of them mean well but me being here getting bored is not the best way for me to handle everything that is going on right now. I just need a break to get away from all of this for an hour or two. This damn thing is just depressing me even more."

Rory broke into a smile and kissed him. "You've just inspired an idea. I'll be right back." Before he could ask any questions Rory walked off, scanning the Huntzberger house for two people in particular. Finally she spotted them and headed towards Colin and Finn. "Hi guys."

"Well if it isn't the lovely Rory," Finn greeted her cheerfully.

"Hey Gilmore," said Colin. "How's our boy holding up?"

"That's why I am here, my friends we have some serious bucking up to do so in true Huntzberger fashion we are forming a sub-party," Rory informed them.

"Excellent idea," said Colin. "We'll round up the others."

"Only the inner circle. We want to let Logan know his best friends are there for him, not throw a rager in the pool house," said Rory.

"OK," said Colin. "Man I love getting to write the guest lists. Deciding if people are good enough to hang out with me makes me feel important."

"Well I'm going to get some drinks for our little soirée so any requests?" Rory asked.

"Get some coke for me love," said Finn.

"Coke and . . .?" asked Rory.

Finn looked at her with a confused look on his face, ". . .and ice."

"No seriously," laughed Rory.

"Seriously."

Rory was stumped. "Are you telling me that there is no alcohol in that glass?" she asked looking at the tumbler in Finn's hand.

"Rory love, in case you hadn't noticed, Logan's father just died. I think me sitting here getting smashed would be a little inappropriate," said Finn.

"Especially seeing as you and alcohol usually results in you on top of a table, stripping while singing 'I'm Too Sexy For this Shirt,' said Colin.

"Also inappropriate for this particular event," Finn agreed. "However if you feel deprived Rory, my darling, I could arrange a private rendition for you," he offered.

"No thanks Finn," said Rory. "I'll just go get you that coke."

"See you in the pool house," said Colin.

Rory headed back towards Logan. "Hey Ace, where'd you wonder off two leaving me by my lonesome and why do you look so disorientated?"

"Finn's sober," she said, with a baffled look.

"Sorry, I must have heard you wrong, what'd you say?" asked Logan, incredulous.

"Finn's sober."

"Is it possible I misheard you twice?"

"Nope."

"Well...are you sure?"

"I don't know. He asked me to get him a coke."

"And...?"

"That's what I said!"

"What'd he say?"

"Ice."

"Wow. I can't remember a time when Finn was completely sober apart from the hour after he just wakes up and I do literally mean only that one hour a day," said Logan, thinking back. "And I've known Finn a long time. Seeing as I have a feeling this could very well be a once in a lifetime opportunity I've got to go see this for myself."

"You will, he's meeting us in the pool house in fifteen minutes," Rory informed him.

Logan raised a questioning eyebrow. "He is?"

"Well a very wise man once taught me that the key to surviving painfully boring and in this case depressing parties was to form a sub-party. Or a sub-wake as it were."

Logan broke into a smile, "I knew there was a reason I love you," he said, giving her a kiss on the cheek.

A look of discomfort flashed across Rory's face, "Uh Logan I don't think that..."

"It's an expression Ace," said Logan, with a small smile. "So why in fifteen minutes?"

"I figured that would be enough time to do a little more mingling, make sure we get our faces seen one last time, just to make it stick and also to give Colin time to round up the rest of the gang."

"Alright, fifteen minutes and counting."

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"Rosemary why are you crying?" asked Colin.

"It's just all so sad," she sobbed, blowing her nose in a tissue.

They had been in the pool house for about five minutes now when Juliet had commented it was a nice service and Rosemary had randomly burst into tears.

"She's been like this all day," explained Stephanie, rolling her eyes. "She can't cope with funerals."

"Ever since my grandma died when I was fourteen I just cry at funerals," said Rosemary. "Even the ones on TV."

"I thought you never knew your grandma," said Juliet, confused.

"I didn't," said Rosemary. "She lived abroad her whole life. It was still sad," she said, defending her current state. "I'm so sorry Logan, you are the one that is grieving and I'm here making a show of myself."

"It's OK," said Logan, sincerely. He was just pleased to get away from the main house and the hoards of businessmen all eagerly waiting their chance to speak with the new Huntzberger in charge.

"I started during your eulogy and have barely stopped. It was really beautiful Logan," said Rosemary, beginning to pull herself together.

"Thanks," he said quietly. Rory smiled at him, a proud look on her face. His eulogy really had been great. He had talked about his father's more noteable work at length and how determined and ambitious he had been. He then talked about more personal things; Mitchum's interests and hobbies and then talked about their relationship. He had admitted that they had not always seen eye to eye and that they'd had their arguments but that he was a great man, who had certainly left his imprint on the world and he was lucky to have been his son. Everyone that Rory had been talking to after the service had mentioned what a fitting tribute it was to Mitchum Huntzberger.

"You know Rosemary love, if you need someone to comfort you, I'm right here," said Finn, sitting down beside her and draping his arm around her shoulders.

"Thanks Finn," she said, snuggling into his embrace. "That would be very kind of you."

"Rosemary, maybe we should get you some water," said Rory, getting up and taking the girl by the hand over to the drinks trolley.

"Oh Rory you spoil all my fun!" complained Finn, sitting back on the sofa with his arms crossed, huffing.

"Sorry Finn," said Rory, pouring Rosemary a glass of water. "But a while ago she made me promise her I would make sure she never succumed to your rather persuasive charms."

Finn's eyes widened in shock and he looked at Rosemary with a look of indignance on his face. "Rose, love, is this true?"

Rosemary nodded her head as Finn pouted, "I thought we had something special!"

"You said the same thing to that tree you hit on last week," said Colin.

"Well don't I feel special," said Rosemary, sarcastically, sipping at her water. "Thank you Rory."

"You're welcome," smiled Rory, sitting back down beside Logan.

"And now the time has come my friends, to speak of other things. Of shoes and ships and sealing wax. of cabbages and kings," exclaimed Finn, jumping to his feet. Apparently alcohol only added to his eccentricities.

"OK then Walrus, I choose cabbages," said Stephanie. "Horrid stuff, can't stand the smell of it."

"I have a strange fascination with it," said Colin. "It goes great on top of pepperoni pizza."

"That's disgusting," said Rory. "A ruination of a perfectly good food group."

"Can we stop talking about food please, I'm starving," said Juliet.

"You could always try eating something," suggested Logan.

"Don't be ridiculous," said Juliet. "I already had my share of hors d'oeuvres."

"You had three mushroom rolls!" argued Stephanie.

"Exactly," said Juliet.

"In the spirit of remembering that this is in fact a sub-wake, I think we should propose a toast," interrupted Finn, raising his glass. "To Mitchum. For not throwing me out of his house when I made a pass at his wife."

"For waiting three months to send the plane to bring us back home after Colin crashed the yacht," said Stephanie, raising her glass.

"For not making me pay for the yacht," said Colin, also raising his glass.

"For distracting my father while I snuck out of the house during my sister's birthday party," was Juliet's toast.

"For buying the LDB gong," said Rosemary, "I love that thing."

"For bringing us all together," said Rory, glancing at Logan who was looking around his friends with a touched look. Like everyone before him, he raised his glass. "To Mitchum," he said, taking a drink as the rest of them echoed "To Mitchum," and sipped their drinks.

"I'm really lucky to have you guys," said Logan.

"We know," said Finn. "But don't worry, we won't let you forget it."

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Rory and Logan held hands as they made their way down to breakfast. The sub-wake had broken up at the same time as the actual wake and Logan had asked Rory to spend the night again and she had willingly obliged. When they entered the dining room, Shira, Honor and Josh were already seated .

"Good morning," said Rory, sitting down. She felt a little awkward at this table, where only a few weeks ago she was told she was not good enough to be part of the family. Shira had been very nice to Rory during the past few days and had not objected to Rory staying over but Rory was worried that now the funeral was over she had outstayed her welcome in the Huntzberger home.

"Good morning Rory, Logan," said Shira politely. "Martha will be back in a minute with the coffee and can get you anything you'd like."

"Thanks mom," said Logan, sitting down beside Rory. "How did you sleep?"

"I got a few hours," said Shira, her make up not quite hiding the toll the past few days had taken on her. "And you?"

"The same," admittted Logan. "Did you two stay the night as well?"

"No," said Honor. "We went home last night, Josh had run out of clean clothes, but we came back for breakfast. I don't feel quite ready to return to normal life just yet."

Logan nodded in understanding. "I had to turn my cell phone off because dad's lawyers and partners have been ringing all morning. It's too soon."

"You are going to have to speak with them eventually Logan," Shira gently reminded him.

"Yeah, but not now," said Logan just as Elias burst into the dining room with a newspaper in his hand.

"Good morning Elias," said Shira.

"'Morning grandpa," said Honor.

"Is it?" asked Elias, placing the paper in front of Logan. "Try page five."

Confused, Logan opened the paper and turned to page five. "Oh no," he said, reading the headline 'The Future of Huntzberger Publishing?' with a picture of him clearly drunk out of his face, with his arm around a blonde at a party.

"What exactly do you plan to do about this?" asked Elias curtly.

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_A/N2: _Did you like it? Comments, questions, suggestions always welcomed. PLEASE REVIEW:D


	4. We Got Us A Luke's Coffee Virgin!

**The Reigning Huntzberger**

_A/N: _I'm glad everyone still seems to be enjoying the story, so please keep reviewing, I love feedback of all sorts! I didn't realise at the time the uproar I was going to cause with Logan having his arm around a blonde in the newpaper picture. The sort of semi-cliffhanger wasn't supposed to be 'Oh no, is Logan cheating on Rory?' it was just supposed to be about the article in general. So sorry for that and that it took me so long to update...and that despite that nothing happens in this chapter. Anyway, on we go!

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_Chapter 4: We Got Us A Luke's Coffee Virgin!_

Logan scanned through the article in front of him; to say this was not good was quite the understatement. The article outlined some of Logan's less reputable acts, his numerous arrests for a variety of offences, his love for alcohol fueled parties and most pedominantly his womanising. Frowning as he read through the article, he finally looked up and tuned into the conversation that was happening around him. Apparently while Logan had been wrapped up in reading the newspaper piece, Elias had been ranting to the rest of the family while paraphrasing the article. When the first words Logan actually heard were "dope den," he tuned out again and looked back at the picture. He let out a groan as he realised what had caused this phrase to come from his grandfather's lips. Behind him and the blonde, you could easily make out a group of guys sitting at a table with a bong in the middle. Upon closer inspection Logan recognised one of the guys as Robert, 'Wow, I really do hate that guy,' Logan realised. He then cringed when he noticed the the caption under the picutre which read, 'College buffoon becomes newspaper tycoon.' They were not even going to use decent writers to ruin him.

"Logan are you alright?" Rory's voice brought him fully out of his trance this time, "You look kind of pale."

"Water," croaked Logan, "Can someone please get me some water."

"Martha!" hollered Shira. "We need some water!"

Rory lifted the paper from in front of Logan and scanned through the article for herself, sure that Elias must have been exaggerating. "This is bad," said Rory, passing the paper to Shira as she realised that for once Elias had not done any embellishing, there was no need.

"You haven't even so much as set a foot inside one of Mitchum's offices yet and you have already started running the company into the ground!" yelled Elias.

"Hey, back off!" said Rory firmly.

"You can't talk to me like that!" said Elias indignantly. "What are you even still doing here?"

"Apparently I'm defending your grandson," said Rory. "You just need to calm down so we can all take time to proccess this, rationally assess the situation and then decide on the best course of action."

"Who do you think you are?" asked Elias, clearly outraged. "You are not even a member of this family, you can't tell me what to do."

"Excuse me," said Shira, getting up suddenly and heading out of the room.

"Sit down grandpa," said Honor, recognising that things were beginning to get out of control. "And mom get back in here!"

"Just a minute!" said Shira, popping her head around the corner.

"Just this once stress smoke in here," said Honor. "We'll pretend we don't know about it and I'll share an ashtray with you 'cause God knows I could do with one. Besides, Rory's right, we need to talk about this."

Shira slowly came back into the room, hesitantly puffing on her cigarette while the maid poured Logan some water which he gulped down. Everyone at the table watched him, waiting for him to say or do something. He looked around at them; his mother was nervously smoking, Elias was glaring at him, Honor looked wary, Josh looked uncomfortable and Rory . . . "Oh my God Rory," said Logan, snapping out of it. "That picture, it's old, it was taken last summer before we were together, hell before I even met you! I'm not entrely sure though, I don't have a vivid recollection of that particular night, or even that particular blonde and I. . ."

"Logan stop," said Rory, seeing how distressed he already was, "It's OK, I believe you."

Logan gave a sigh of relief and flashed her a grateful smile.

"Logan it is exaclty these sort of nights and women that you have no recollection of that have landed us in this situation," said Elias.

"'Us?" asked Logan. "I don't exactly remember your name being slandered in the paper grandpa."

"It's not slander when it is all true," retorted Elias.

For once Logan had no comeback, Elias was right, it was all true, there was nothing they could do legally to get the paper to print a retraction though he did personally feel that the author of the photograph's tagline should be hunted down and shot. "So what can we do about this?" asked Logan, feeling horribly out of his depth.

"Maybe if you had attended more meetings or actually went to any of your classes you might know," said Elias snidely.

"Elias, you're not helping," commented Shira, burning her way down to the end of the cigarette before fumbling to lift another out of the packet. "I can't believe any reporter would be so cruel to do this, we only buried Mitchum yesterday!"

"That's the press for you," said Josh.

"It's The Hartford Tribune, they write so much crap they are practically a tabloid masquerading as a decent paper. They consider themselves our competition mom," said Logan. "They are probably jumping at the chance to discredit me and the entire Huntzberger Publishing Group. This is the paper who devoted several column inches to the boat sinking incident."

"I never knew you were so news worthy," remarked Rory.

"Well when the son of a newspaper magnet spends his teenage and college years building an inappropriate reputation for himself, rival newspapers like their readers to know about it," said Elias. "When that son takes over and becomes the head of the company well he goes from being in the odd column to a full page article."

"Grandpa you need to sit down," said Honor.

"Well which article would you prefer to read?" asked Elias. "The tributes to the memory of Mitchum with details of yesterday's service like the ones that are currently featuring in our papers or the exposé on the new head of Huntzberger publishing?"

"Well we'll just get one of our papers to write something that contradicts this article," said Logan. "You know talking about how the family are dealing with it, how I'm jumping into things to assure we maintain the same level of journalism to honour dad's memory, that sort of thing."

"And how exactly are you 'jumping in'?" asked Elias.

"I guess I'm just going to follow the plans that dad already had laid out for me for the upcoming year. I'm going to spend a lot of my summer learning the ropes, getting a feel for the business," Logan told him, a reluctant expression oh his face. "While working on graduating from Yale, I'll keep working at the part time, appointing someone else to fill in when I'm not there. Once I have my degree I will start work full time and try to carry on."

"That sounds like a good plan," said Rory, squeezing his hand encouragingly. It was only beginning to sink in how much repsonsibility had landed on Logan's shoulders. After spending his entire life shirking off duties and responsibilty he was finally going to have to do all the things he had avoided for so long and she felt sorry for him.

Elias merely grunted before leaving the dining room. "Well aren't we glad we decided to come over for a nice peaceful breakfast," said Honor, breaking the tension.

"Yep, another happy Huntzberger family meal," said Logan, rubbing at the back of his neck. "I'm going to call some of dad's people about this, see if there is any other sort of damage control they can do."

"Sweetheart," said Shira. "They are your people now."

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Rory was hunched over her books in her dorm, frantically trying to cram in some revision before her last final. With the hecticness of the past few weeks she had been left with very little time and as it was, she was finding it very difficult to concentrate. Her mind kept drifting and she kept questioning if this is what she wanted out of life, to work towards being a foreign correspondent and doing that work was proving to be very difficult with Mitchum Huntzberger's words swirling around in her ears. She knew it was stupid to let one person's opinion effect her like this, when everyone else had made a point of telling her that he was wrong but she could not help it, he had gotten to her. She still planned to try and find an internship at another paper over the summer but not being able to keep her focus was making her wonder if this was the right thing to do. Her lack of revision was interrupted by a knock on the door.

She got up to answer it, smiling in surprise when she saw Logan on the other side. "Hey Ace," he said, kissing her before walking further into her suite.

"Aren't you supposed to be in New York?" asked Rory, closing the door behind him.

"You sure know how to make a guy feel welcome," said Logan.

"You know I'm happy to see you," she said, "I'm just a little surprised seeing as I thought you were currently on a plane."

"I had to get a later flight so that I could pop by, drop in an assignment and see you of course," he said, wrapping his arms around her waist.

"Not complaining," said Rory, kissing him.

"Good to know," smiled Logan. "So do you remember that article that was in the Tribune last week?"

"The one outlining all your dirty deeds?"

"That's the one," said Logan. "Well our 'damage control' kind of backfired."

"What do you mean?" asked Rory, worried.

"Well my PR guy, yes apparently I have the need for one, thought it would be a good idea to try and set them straight by saying I was a responsible, hard working young man in a serious relationship, ready to take on everything that was expected of me... thank you, by the way, for holding back the snort that no one else bothered to refrain from," said Logan, noticing the amused smile on her face. "Well The Tribune responded with this." Logan braced himself as he pulled a newspaper out of his backpack, turning to the relevant page.

Rory's eyes widened in realisation, "That's us!" she exclaimed in horror as she saw a picture of her and Logan that was taken during the press conference she had went with him to, concerning Mitchum's passing.

"Yep," said Logan, a note of apology in his tone as he winced, waiting for more shrieks of horror.

"In the paper," Rory continued. "Why is there a picture of us in the paper?"

"Well apparently, you are cleverly planned publicity stunt to try and pretend that I am the sensible, settled man that Ron the PR guy now claims I am, after all you had no place at that conference."

"That's peposterous!" complained Rory. "I was there to support you!"

"That's what Ron is telling them, he's busy squashing this as we speak." said Logan.

Rory brought the paper closer to her face and began reading aloud, "New CEO of Huntzberger Publishing, twenty two year old Logan Huntzberger seems to have added another girl to his long and varied list of conquests. However this time, the 'lucky lady' seems to have a suspiciously untarnished reputation. The antithesis of the type of women Logan usually has on his arm, twenty year old Lorelai Gilmore, granddaughter of the prestigious Hartford Gilmores who are high up in the insurance business, is a journalist major at Yale.

I can't help but wonder if this relationship is nothing other than a ploy to convince everyone that he is the "responsible, young man" that his publicist insists he is. Unless it is a mere coincidence that just when Logan has to settle down, he finds a girl that his family would approve of and who would be the perfect newspaper man's wife."

Having read this at an alarming rate, Rory finally stopped to take a breath to allow her to rant further on the matter. "'The perfect newspaper man's wife'? What on earth are they talking about? Besides your family hates me, they should do their research! What so I come from a good family, I go to a good school, I've never been arrested and I'm not some blonde slut so obviously our relationship is a scam?"

"Pretty much," said Logan with a sigh.

"Well what kind of wacked logic is that!"

"It isn't logical," said Logan, "It's insanity. They must have had some extra space and no last minute stories about a heroric rescue of a cat from a tree."

"Well I don't see why they had to print this complete and utter nonsense," said Rory, looking back at the article. "Oh my God do I see a Tom and Katie reference coming up?"

"OK I think it's time I take that back now," said Logan, snatching the paper our of her hands before quickly putting it securely away in his backpack. "Again I repeat try not to worry, I just thought you should see it in case someone else mentioned it to your first. So are we good?"

"Yeah, we're fine," Rory assured him.

"Good 'cause I've got that plane to catch." He leant down and kissed her before heading for the door.

"Call me tonight?"

"Sure thing, later Ace," he said, as he left and Rory closed the door behind him. What a morning.

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Lorelai and Luke were enjoying a quiet Saturday night in watching movies at Lorelai's. They had already watched Willy Wonka and were about to move on to Beverly Hills Cop.

"So where's Rory tonight? Out with Logan?" asked Luke as Lorelai put the video into the machine.

"No, Logan is in New York at the moment," said Lorelai. "Rory is with Lane, saying their goodbyes before Hep Alien go on tour."

"Must be nice having her home again," said Luke.

"Yeah, it is," said Lorelai. "It's her first real summer home from college. I mean last year she was in Europe with Emily and I know that she will be busy with Logan and trying to get a summer internship but it still gives me this comforting feeling to know that she's basically mine for the next two months. We're finally getting round to having Cop Rock marathon!"

"That must be very exciting for you both," said Luke, with a complete lack of understanding. "So how are things between her and Logan, is he treating her alright?"

"If you consider inpromtu trips to Martha's Vineyard or New York or anywhere else with an airport, expensive presents and being wined and dined 'alright' then yes he is," said Lorelai.

"That's not what I meant," said Luke. "It's one thing owning a limitless platinum card it's another to be able to be a proper boyfriend. I just want to know whether or not I am going to have to pummel this kid anytime soon cause I'd like to get some training in first in case he has bodyguards on standby or something. Not that it would probably stop me, I mean if he hurts Rory it is going to take more than a few armed guards to stop me from kicking his ass." Luke squirmed uncomfortably as he noticed that Lorelai was suddenly gazing at him with a knowing smile on her face. "What?" he finally asked.

"Luke will you marry me?"

Luke felt the colour drain from his face, had she just asked what he had thought? He had better be sure. "What?"

"Luke, will you marry me?" she repeated again.

Nope, he had definitely heard it right. Was she joking? That could be it. Like the time he had proposed just to get her to shut up, after all he had been babbling for a bit. Though hadn't Lorelai expressed her love of his rants on various occassions? His heart started pounding even harder when her words sunk in and he realised that it was not a joke. He looked at her hard, noteing the twinkle of promise in her eyes and the hopeful smile on her mouth as she waited patiently for an answer. "Yes." Lorelai's smile grew even wider. "Of course I'll marry you." They shared a passionate kiss before wrapping their arms around each other in a tight embrace, both savouring the moment they had both been dreaming about for a long time.

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Rory sat on the living room sofa, in a pretty green dress, happily clicking away on her laptop. "Mom are you almost ready? Logan is going to be here any moment!" she yelled, noticing the time.

"Any moment but not this moment?" came Lorelai's voice from upstairs causing Rory to roll her eyes. They were all supposed to be going out to dinner to celebrate Luke and Lorelai's engagement but as always Lorelai had been unable to decide on an outfit, changing several times before choosing only five minutes previously, meaning she would have to do her hair and make up in record time. Knowing it would be another while yet before Lorelai made an appearance, Rory went back to typing up her resumé to send off to various papers she was hoping would consider giving her a summer internship. She felt that she had something to accomplish this summer so that when she returned to Yale in the fall she would know exactly what she was doing. Hearing a knock on the door, she put the laptop onto the coffee table and went to answer it. When Rory opened the door to find Logan standing on the otherside with an apologetic look on his face and this latest copy of The Tribune in his hands, Rory's face fell.

"What do you want first, good news or bad news?" Logan asked, walking into the house as Rory closed the door behind him.

"Good."

"Well they don't think our relationship is a sham anymore," said Logan, nodding his head positively.

"That's something," said Rory, determined to cling to this no matter what Logan told her next. "And the bad?"

"They think we are married."

"WHAT!"

"Apparently we eloped within the last month, an act of rebellion on my behalf just to piss off my father."

"Where the hell did they get that idea?" asked Rory.

"Some inside source from the hospital supposedly," said Logan. "They liked this new angle and went with it."

Rory frowned at this and chewed nervously on her lip, "The hospital?"

"Yeah, apparently someone who worked there told them you were my wife. Honestly the things people will do for money!" said Logan, with a look of disgust on his face.

Rory's face fell, "Uh Logan?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't be mad," she started, an apologetic look on her face. "But when Josh called me to say your dad had died he told me the only way I was going to get into the hospital was if I was family, so when I got to the front desk I said I was Rory Gilmore-Huntzberger, Mitchum's daughter in law."

"You did what?" asked Logan, a confused look on his face. "Are you saying they actually had a reliable source on this?"

"Sort of," said Rory, squirming. "I am so, so sorry Logan, I didn't think anything of it at the time."

"It's OK," said Logan quietly. "Ron is in full squash mode anyway."

"I'm sorry," said Rory, feeling bad.

"No worries Ace," Logan smiled at her. "You took it better than I thought anyway."

"That's because I caused it," she said glumly.

"Hey this isn't your fault," Logan assured her, gently lifting her head with the tips of his fingers. "It's these sleazeball reporters who refuse to give me a break."

"Ugh, journalists!" moaned Rory. "I hate that we are newspaper people and can't complain about them without being hypocritical. I hate being hypocritical!"

Logan grinned, "I know Ace, I remember when you refused to let me talk when we were watching Casablanca but then kept chatting to me throughout it so you didn't let yourself read before you went to bed as punishment."

"Did I just hear 'bed' and 'punishment' in the same sentance 'cause if so I think it calls for a 'dirty!'" said Lorelai coming down the stairs with a wicked grin on her face. "Hi Logan."

"Hey Lorelai, you are looking lovely this evening," he said.

"I know but isn't nice to hear it every once in a while from the young blooded! OK so Luke got caught up at the diner longer than expected so we are going to walk around and go from there," said Lorelai, looking for her purse. "Which means that you will get a partial walking tour of Stars Hollow _and_ get to taste Luke's famous coffee."

"That sounds great, Rory has been writing odes about his coffee for months I think it is about time I get to see for myself," said Logan.

"Oh you do no just see Luke's coffee," Rory corrected him. "You hold it and you smell it and you savour it as you feel its precious ingredients gently flow into your mouth as the taste enrichens your tastebuds and the caffine works its way into your bloodstream and makes you feel alive!"

"Yeah, I remember the haiku," teased Logan.

"Let's go," said Rory, rolling her eyes as they headed for the door.

As they walked along the streets of Stars Hollow, Logan looked around him, trying to take everything in. He had heard so much about this little hamlet town where Rory grew up and he was enjoying finally getting to see it. "Oh oh incoming," Rory said to him as she spotted Babette and Miss Patty approaching them, with a determined look in their eyes.

"You are not getting through this one alive pretty boy," Lorelai warned him. Logan gave her a strange look as she turned around to the two women and greeted them with a smile. "Hi Patty, hi Babette."

"Lorelai, Rory, aren't you going to introduce us to this handsome young man?" asked Miss Patty, fluttering her eyelashes flirtatiously.

Obviously not sensing the danger he was in, Logan turned on his most charming smile and offered out his hand, shaking them in turn, "Logan Huntzberger, at your service."

"Oh my, my, my!" giggled Miss Patty, fanning herself, "Aren't you quite the gentleman."

"Most of the time," said Logan, with a wink.

"Rory sugar, where'd you find this one?" asked Babette.

"Logan goes to Yale with me," smiled Rory, exchanging a nervous look with Lorelai.

"Ooh, fancy!" said Babette. "I should have guessed by those trousers, Patty look at his trousers don't they just scream 'Ivy League'?"

"If pants could scream then yes they would," said Lorelai, deciding to set plan 'Save Logan' into operation. "Sorry ladies we have to get going."

"Surely not right now," protested Miss Patty with a pout.

"Yes unfortunately, we have dinner reservations," said Rory, with an apologetic look on her face. "We only have time to go pick up Luke and then we have to go."

"Well you had better come back soon!" Babette warned him.

"As if I could ever go too long without seeing you lovely ladies again, it was great to meet you!" said Logan, as he walked off with Rory and Lorelai. "You are going to regret that," said Lorelai.

"What do you mean?" asked Logan, his eyes suddenly widening in shock, "Rory please tell me that was you who just pinched my ass."

"Sorry."

"Walk faster," said Logan, as behind him Miss Patty scampered back to Babette and Lorelai and Rory grinned at each other, amused. They entered the diner and Rory and Logan took a seat while Lorelai went up the stairs to see Luke. "Hey it's only me, hoping to catch a glimpse of you naked!" she chirped, with an optimistic expression on her face as she walked into Luke's apartment, frowning when she saw Luke fully dressed, tying his shoe laces.

"Sorry to disappoint," said Luke standing up.

"There's always later," Lorelai reminded him cheerfully. "So you ready to go? Rory and Logan are waiting downstairs. She's introducing him to the holy grail that is your coffee."

"Converting people to my coffee is part of you guys' mantra."

"You shouldn't complain it's good for business," Lorelai chastised him playfully.

"Ok I'm ready to go. Wait is he wearing a tie?" asked Luke, frowning suddenly.

"That Logan kid, is he wearing a tie?" Luke asked again.

"Um...yeah," said Lorelai.

"Dammit!" complained Luke, going over to his chest of drawers and starting to rummage through it. "Blasted rich kids with their ties."

"Luke just because Logan is wearing a tie does not mean you have to," said Lorelai, as Luke produced a tie from his drawer.

"Yes it does! He would probably be horrified if he saw that I planned to go out to a fancy restaurant without a tie."

"I doubt that, besides it's our engagement celebration, you don't have to wear a tie if you don't want to," Lorelai assured him.

"No it's on now, let's go," said Luke, grabbing his jacket.

"Luke, be nice," said Lorelai, as they headed down the stairs.

"What do you mean, I'm always nice," Luke insisted.

"Well_ I _know that," said Lorelai, "But I want to make sure that by the end of the night Logan will also know that. I just didn't want this to turn into another Pippi incident seeing as we are going to a fancy pansy restaurant which I'm sure would frown upon something as obnoxious as a Bopit which by the way did not fit into my purse, I know, I tried."

"This won't be another Pippi incident," Luke promised. "So long as he keeps his hands to himself."

Lorelai sighed as they entered the main part of the diner where Logan and Rory were, happily sipping mugs of coffee. "OK, OK," she heard Logan say as they approached them. "This coffee rocks, you were right, I will never tease you about your utter devotion to it again because you are the queen of everything."

"At last, sufficient validation of my character," smiled Rory.

"So I take it you are a convert?" asked Lorelai.

"I plan on spending obscene amounts of money on having the stuff shipped out to me over the summer," said Logan.

"See, we are good for business," Lorelai told Luke who was standing awkwardly beside the table.

"So Logan this is Luke, Luke this is Logan," said Rory, jumping in to try and break the moment of awkward silence.

"Nice to meet you," said Logan, shaking Luke's hand.

"We've met before," said Luke gruffly.

Logan grimaced. "Yes it is safe to say I remember with startling accuracy, you were after all fighting for the chance to be the first one to kill me. I was just being polite and hoping that by some miracle you had forgotten our last encounter."

"So let's hit the road, shall we?" said Rory quickly, eager to move on.

"Yes lets!" said Lorelai holding the door open.

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"I hate that he paid."

"Luke..."

"'No guys don't worry . . .it's your engagment we are celebrating . . . I've got it covered' He sickens me," ranted Luke as he got into bed.

"It was a nice thing for him to do," said Lorelai, positioning the pillows to her liking.

"He was sucking up to us Lorelai, trying to win us over flashing his money about."

"There was no money, he used his credit card, beside if sucking up is going to result in me getting some Tiffany diamond earrings you aren't going to hear me complaining."

"He was being nice," said Lorelai, smiling at how worked up Luke had gotten himself. "I mean yes he probably wants to make a good impression, I'm his girlfriend's mother and we kind of got off on the wrong foot and you are pretty intimidating. I thought he did good."

Luke sighed. "He is kind of funny."

"Now was that so hard?" asked Lorelai, with a patronising smile.

"Though I still think he was trying to hard."

"Goodnight Luke."

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_A/N2_: Again sorry for the delay and the pointless chapter and the really crap way for Luke and Lorelai to get engaged. I just wanted them to and was too unimaginative to do it any other way. I also apologise for the whole article thing being implausible, I just had it as one of the minor plot whatevers for this chapterand it was only when I read over it I realised how ridiculous it is but I don't want to keep you lot waiting any longer than I already have so to reach a point; sorry and thank you for reading.


	5. Die Kirk

**The Reigning Huntzberger**

_Chapter 5: Die, Kirk._

"That sounded bad," said Lorelai, coming in from the kitchen with a dish of tater tots.

"Grandma," said Rory, sitting down on the sofa. "Had just gotten a phone call from Penny Longwington, her friend from the DAR, congratulating her on having recently welcomed Logan Huntzberger into the family."

"I will pay you one billion dollars to make a time machine so I can go back and make sure to be there when she got that call so I could see her face!" exclaimed Lorelai with glee.

"I'll get working on that," promised Rory, rolling her eyes. "She just started screaming down the phone at me, demanding to know what was going on, if we had gotten married, why we hadn't told her, that she was going to have to plan a reception. I took me the best part of fifteen minutes to convince her that we were not married. She was hysterical."

"Sounds like Emily."

"I hate this, I hate that grandma is getting these calls, I hate that these stupid paper guys are making up stuff about Logan when they know he is going through a hard time."

"I know sweetie, but it will get better," Lorelai assured her.

"I guess," said Rory with a sigh. "So are we all set up?"

"Yep," said Lorelai, lifting the video remote. "Let's Cop Rock!"

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"Well!" said Rosemary as she opened the door to find Logan and Rory at the other side. "If it isn't the Huntzbergers!"

"Don't you start," said Rory with a frown.

"Sore subject at the moment," explained Logan as they entered the house.

"I'm sure," said Rosemary. "I knew it wasn't true the second I read it, I mean for one thing I would have been invited if you two had have got married . . . right?"

"Of course," Rory placated her.

"Good," chirped Rosemary, pleased with this answer. "So I'll catch you up, so far Juliet has ate two doritos and one peanut, Seth has revealed two embarrassing secerets about himself, one of which inculdes pom poms and Finn has proclaimed his undying love to me four times, Steph twice and Robert once."

"So he is about a bottle ahead of me?" asked Logan.

"Something like that," said Rosemary, leading them into the living room of Colin's family house. Like the rest of the circle, Colin's house was big and ornately decorated with rich furnshings and works of art hanging on the walls. Rory had still not quite managed to adjust to this and being her first time in the Mc Crae household, she could not help but gaze wide eyed all around her as she walked into the sitting room where most people were already. "Oh Stephanie is waving me over, I better go, you know how she gets."

"OK but you better catch up with me later," said Rory. "I want to hear about those pom poms!"

"Ah Maxwell, 99 how nice of you to join us!" exclaimed Colin upon seeing the couple.

"Oh has the lovely Rory arrived?" asked Finn turning around and heading over to them. He and Colin dropped to their knees and began bowing in a worshipping fashion.

Rory looked up at Logan with an amused smile, "So I guess they heard about the boat incident?"

"I guess so," said Logan, grinning as Colin and Finn picked themselves up.

"Your first felony, we are so proud love!" said Finn.

"Stealing Richardson's boat-genius! And I hear it was your idea in the first place," said Colin, a look of admiration on his face.

"It just does my heart good that you two have found each other," said Finn in an emotional tone, wiping at an imaginary tear of happiness.

"You know I would love to get a joint mug shot of you two for my wall," said Colin. "I could put it next to Finn's mugshot he got taken after he was arrested for naked poledancing in the Plaza bar."

"My finest hour," said Finn, his chest swelling with pride. "If only I could remember it."

"Well unfortunately there were no mug shots seeing as we didn't get arrested but if the opportunity ever arises I'll be sure to make such a request," promised Logan, pouring himself a drink.

"So Colin this house is amazing," said Rory, wanting to move the conversation on from the events of that night. "Did you grow up here?"

"No my dad moved in here when he married his latest wife, number five I believe," said Colin. "Could be six but I'm not sure. What I do know is that daddy dearest has taken the latest Mrs. Mc Crae off to Barbados for the entire summer and we have a place for a two month long party!"

"I'll drink to that!" said Finn, tipping back his glass.

"Like you need a reason," said Logan, handing Rory her drink.

"An excellent point my good friend," said Finn, refilling his glass with another intoxicating substance. "So Logan, have I told you what I thought should be the main event for this year's annual end of summer trip to Europe?" Logan shook his head. "Glousteshire England for the famous cheese rolling festival!"

"The what?" asked Logan, incredulous.

"The cheese rolling festival," said Finn as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "People climb to the top of a hill and push down a large roll of cheese while chasing after it."

"You have got to be making this up," said Rory.

"I'm afraid not," said Finn.

"It's too ridiculous to make up," confirmed Colin. "So you can definitely count me in."

"Good man," said Finn, "Logan, what about you? Want to take on the cheese?"

"I hate to break it to you guys but I probably won't even be able to make it to Europe this summer," Logan apologised. "There is just so much on my plate right now."

Colin and Finn looked at Logan with equally blank expressions, their eyes wide in disbelief. "I don't understand what you just said," Colin said finally.

"Come on, you know how much I would love to go with you to Europe and chase cheese down a hill but I can't! There is just too much I have to do. You understand don't you?" asked Logan, hoping they would.

"Rory love, try to talk some sense into him, I need something stronger," said Finn.

"Stronger than the lighter fluid you are currently consuming?" asked Colin.

"Yes," said Finn, walking off in search of the drink with the highest alcohol content.

"Colin man, you get it don't you?" asked Logan. "I need to be here this summer, working on dad's papers."

"But the cheese!" protested Colin.

"There are more important things than cheese Colin."

An expression of horror formed on Colin's face with these words. "I can't talk to you when you are like this," he said, walking away. Logan gave a heavy sigh, hanging his head. "Hey, don't let them get you down," said Rory, putting a comforting arm around him.

"I can't help it," admitted Logan. "I wish I could go, I really do. I hate that I have to miss our last Europe end of summer trip before we graduate but there is nothing I can do about it."

"I know," said Rory. "And they know that too they just don't want to admit it because they would have to admit that things aren't going to be the same anymore. A lot of the time they are going to be one stooge down."

"Oh my God you're right," said Logan, with a sudden note of panic in his voice. "What if they replace me?"

"What?" asked Rory, confused.

"You said it yourself they are going to be down a stooge and two stooges just don't have the same charm as three. The best plans all involve three people, three is a central concept, three is a magic number," ranted Logan.

"Having a little Blind Melon moment?"

"I mean all of our great pranks have required three people so if I'm stuck here doing responsible, boring grown up crap they are going to find someone else to hang out with," said Logan. "They can't do that. I brought us together, I'm the founding member!"

"I'm sure they are not going to replace you," said Rory.

"I hate being a grown up," said Logan with a pout.

"If it helps I don't think you are there just yet."

"You think so?" asked Logan, perking up.

"Definitely," Rory confirmed. "You are still a fair bit off, in fact, I actually think Finn is closer to becoming an adult than you are."

"Ouch!" said Logan, breaking into a grin. "Thank you for putting up with my craziness."

"Well it is only fair seeing as you put up with mine," Rory reasoned as she leaned in for a kiss.

"True," Logan murmered against her lips before capturing them with his own. Their passionate kiss was interrupted moments later by the sound of Logan's cell. He let out an annoyed groan, fishing for it in his pocket. "Sorry, I've got to take this," he said, checking caller ID. "It's the office." He rolled his eyes before giving her a quick kiss and answered his phone, leaving the room in search of somewhere quieter to take the call. When Logan returned a few minutes later, Rory was casually chatting to Robert and Jenny about their favourite places to get tacos. "Hey guys, sorry can I steal Rory for a moment?" he asked.

"Sure, go right ahead," said Jenny. "We can talk tacos later."

"Thanks," said Logan, leading Rory away from them to a less crowded part of the room.

"Is everything OK?" she asked.

"Yeah, I just have to go," said Logan with a remorseful expression.

"What? Why?" asked Rory.

"Some trouble at one of our papers in Boston, I didn't get the details but they want me down there as soon as possible," he said. "I'm trying to get on a flight that is leaving in a few hours so I have to go home and pack. I should be back by tomorrow night, Monday morning at the latest."

"OK," said Rory quietly.

"Can you tell Colin that I'm sorry I had to leave but I will call him when I get back?"

"Yep, don't worry about it and call me when you get there or if it is at a particularly obscene hour send me a message so I know you got there okay," said Rory.

"Why Ace anyone would think you were worried about me," grinned Logan.

"Just have a safe flight," said Rory before kissing him hard.

Logan sighed, breaking the kiss, "You enjoy making it hard to leave don't you?"

"It's a thing," she admitted.

"Evil temptress," he teased with a small smile.

"Bye."

"Later Ace," said Logan, giving her another quick kiss before heading for the door. Rory went over to where her friends had gathered.

"Hey Rory," greeted Juliet. "Where has Logan got to? I haven't spoken to him tonight."

"He had to go, some newspaper emergency in Boston," she said. "He wanted me to tell you he was sorry and that he would ring you when he got back Colin."

"He has abandoned us again for a bunch of stuffy journalists?" asked Finn, obviously very irritated. "This is getting out of hand, Huntzberger is beginning to forget how to have fun."

"He isn't forgetting, he just doesn't have as much time to spend messing about and partying anymore," argued Rory.

"Then he has to sort out his priorities!" Finn stated. "This whole responsibility kick just won't do."

"You are being unreasonable," said Rory. "He doesn't like suddenly having to become serious and responsible anymore than you do but he knows he has to, he is stepping up and he needs your support rather than you giving him a hard time about it!"

"We're sorry Rory," said Colin, speaking for both of them, even though Finn was not looking particularly apologetic. "We are just drunk and selfish and we miss our friend."

"He misses you too," said Rory.

"Really? Do you think so?" asked Finn, hopefully.

"Of course!"

"I just don't want him to start jetting around the world on important business and forget about us," said Finn.

Rory broke into a smile and give a little chuckle of laughter.

"What's so funny?" asked Colin.

"The three of you are like little kids," she said. "He was just telling me earlier about how he is afraid you are going to get a replacement for him."

"Replace him? That's ridiculous!" said Colin. "He was the one who brought us together!"

"Yeah he is like the founding member of our little threesome," said Finn.

Rory laughed again. "Maybe it is better that you spend a little time apart before your minds all join and become one."

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Rory was sprawled out on the bed in Logan's apartment, lying on her stomach with a book in front of her to keep herself entertained while Logan was in the shower. He had gotten back from Boston that afternoon, a few days later than expected, and although they had not talked about it, she had gotten the impression that he did not want to. When she saw him he had looked tired and rough and while she quite liked the stubble that had grown while he had been away she did not like the dead look behind his eyes that was now there. The trip had obviously drained him. As she turned the page of her novel she heard the phone ring and got up to answer it.

"Hello?"

"Rory, hi it's Honor," came the voice from the other end.

"Honor, hey how are you?" asked Rory.

"Oh you know, things are as fine as they can be," said Honor in a lacklustre tone. "What about you?"

"Me? I'm good."

"Looking after Logan?"

"Oh Logan doesn't need looking after," laughed Rory. "You know how he is."

"I don't really, that's why I'm calling I haven't spoken to him in a while and I just wanted to check in on him, see how he was doing with all this newspaper stuff."

"Do you mean the stuff the newspapers are writing about him or the stuff he has to do with the newspapers?" asked Rory.

"Both I suppose," said Honor, a hint of amusement in her voice.

"He's fine I guess, he's away a lot, I think the travelling and the endless meetings are getting to him a bit but he is really throwing himself into it. I think his dad would be proud," added Rory softly.

"I'm glad to hear it," said Honor. "You've been great for him. I doubt he would be doing as well if it weren't for you."

"Oh I don't know about that," said Rory, slightly embarrassed by the comment.

"Well I do," said Honor. "I feel better knowing that he has you. It's been a difficult few months and you have been amazing, I appreciate it too. In fact, we should do something, the two of us."

"Yeah, I'd really like that," said Rory.

"Great, how about this weekend? A Saturday lunch perhaps?"

"Yeah that would be cool . . . oh wait I promised my mom I'd have lunch with her in Stars Hollow that day," remembered Rory.

"Oh that's OK."

"You know you should join us," suggested Rory. "It will be fun, you'll love my mother and oh! She just got engaged too, you can talk shop!"

"That sounds good," said Honor, enthused. "As long as you don't mind, I wouldn't want to intrude."

"Of course I don't mind, the three of us will have a great time," said Rory. "We are meeting at the Dragonfly Inn, Stars Hollow, do you want directions?"

"I've got a GPS system."

"Of course you do," said Rory. "Two o'clock OK?"

"Perfect! I'm looking forward to it."

"Alright well Logan is in the shower now but I'll tell him you called," Rory promised.

"OK, great, thanks Rory, see you Saturday!" said Honor.

"See you Saturday," Rory echoed, hanging up with a smile before going back to her book.

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"Sure, that is no problem at all, see you on the 18th Mrs Campbell, bye!" said Lorelai, before hanging up the phone. She was entering the reservation into the computer when she noticed Kirk standing the other side of the desk.

"Hi Kirk, sorry didn't see you there."

"That's alright, it is not the first time," he said. "I have a business propostion for you."

At these words, Lorelai inwardly grimaced, no good had ever came from one of Kirk's business endeavours. "Really? I would very much like to hear about that but I'm really busy right now Kirk so if you could call back another time . . ."

"It will only take a minute of your time," Kirk promised.

Panicking, Lorelai picked up the phone, "Hello Dragonfly Inn Lorelai speaking," she said to the dial tone.

Kirk frowned, "Are you sure that rang?"

Lorelai put a finger to her lips, signaling for him to be quiet, "Hold on a second and I'll just check that for you now," said Lorelai. As she turned to the computer she smiled polietly at Kirk, "Sorry, another time for sure."

"Alright then," said Kirk. "I'll call back some point later on in the week."

Picking up the receiver again, Lorelai smiled at him and give him the thumbs up before continuing to chat away with the imaginary customer. Danger temporarily avoided. She had just put the receiver back on the stand when the phone rang causing Lorelai to jump. That was weird. "Hello Dragonfly Inn, Lorelai speaking."

"Hey mom," said Rory down the phone.

"Hi hun, how's things going?"

"Great, I was just ringing to tell you to plus one for lunch on saturday."

"Oh no problem, is Logan joinging us?" asked Lorelai.

"No, his sister Honor actually," said Rory. "She called the other day to suggest getting together sometime and I told her she should just tag along with us. That's OK, isn't it?"

"Of course it is," Lorelai assured her.

"Good cause I think you will really like her," said Rory.

"Then I'm sure I will," said Lorelai.

"OK then, I'll try to get there early so I can introduce you both rather than have you awkwardly wandering around wondering if which one the other is."

"Good plan."

"OK see you then!" said Rory.

"Bye hun!"

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"So are you sure about this whole, having lunch with my sister thing?"

"Yes I am," said Rory, running a brush through her hair.

"Ace . . ."

"I don't see why you are so against this, you like your sister."

"Exactly, and Honor likes you and you like her so neither of you are going to have any qualms about swapping embarrassing stories about me!" complained Logan, "And to top it all off, it will be in front of Lorelai who does not think that highly of me in the first place!"

"You are so self centred if you think the three of us are going to get together and talk about you," said Rory, lifting her coat.

"So you aren't going to tell her any embarrassing stories?" asked Logan, cautiously.

"No, she'll probably be the one telling the stories, I'll be the one listening intently and taking mental notes to blackmail you with if such a situation should arise," said Rory, grinning at him, as he gave a groan of frustration and hung his head. "So what are you gettting up to today?"

"I've made plans to hang out with Colin and Finn, we are going to rebuild our friendship."

"Oh I'm glad, you three need to rebond after your lengthly separation of a few days," teased Rory.

"In our time span, that was a pretty long time," Logan defended himself. "Besides it was Finn's idea, he doesn't want us drifitng apart. For the King of the one night stands he is kind of clingy."

Rory laughed, "He is an enigma that Finn. Though in all seriousness some time with the guys will be good for you, give you a chance to unwind."

"You know I have about an hour to kill before I have to go if you really want to help me unwind," said Logan, standing behind her with his arms wrapped around her waist, murmering into her ear.

"As appealing as that sounds I only have about twenty minutes before I absoultely must leave," said Rory, regretfully.

"We can make that work," said Logan as he started to plant lift kisses on her neck.

"I'm already dressed," protested Rory as she began to feel herself give in.

"Good, then there is an excellent chance you will be able to get dressed again," said Logan.

"I can't be late."

"Then you had better stop wasting all this time arguing with me," said Logan. "Besides one more word of rejection and you will bruise my delicate, fragile ego and then I'll just be a blubbering mess."

"Well we wouldn't want that now would we," said Rory, turning around and kissing him.

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"You're late," said Lorelai as Rory sat down at the table where her mom and Honor were already seated.

"I know," apologised Rory. "Were you two wandering about looking for each other?"

"No, luckily I recognised Loreali straight away," said Honor. "The family resemblance is evident."

"And the blonde hair and Gucci bag tipped me off," said Lorelai.

"Well you two certainly seemed to be getting along," commented Rory. "When I came in you looked deep in conversation."

"Well I just loved Honor's shoes," explained Lorelai.

"And I loved Lorelai's earrings," said Honor.

"And a friendship was born," said Lorelai with a wistful look in her eyes. "Next thing we know we are talking about our uncomfortable relationships with our parents and how we would both dump our fiancés for a chance with Willy Wonka."

"Wow, a lot of ground covered," said Rory, pleased to see them so at ease with each other.

"Yeah well you were half an hour late," said Lorelai pointedly.

"Sorry, traffic was bad and I had errands to run and do you know I just had the hardest time getting dressed today!" said Rory, throwing her hands up as she felt her cheeks heaten slightly at the memory.

"And from that flushed look suddenly on your face I take that the last and only truthful reason involved a certain blond Huntzberger, present company excluded?" asked Loreali teasingly.

"No comment," said Rory simply, shifting in her seat.

"Well that God for that, I have no desire to hear any more about my brother's indescretions for one week thank you all the same," said Honor. "It remains the talk of the Huntzberger household."

"Elias still raging on?" asked Rory.

"Pretty much, I was over there yesterday and he kept going on and on about what a disgrace it was that they were in this situation," said Honor. "He was still quoting from that damned article."

Rory gave a frustrated groan, "That is so typical. Does he know how thin Logan is spreading himself trying to do what his grandfather wants?"

"Logan having a hard time with everything?" asked Lorelai sympathetically.

Rory nodded, "And apparently he is getting no credit for working himself to the bone."

"That's a shame."

"It really is, the hard work must be killing him," said Honor.

"Slowly but surely," Rory confirmed, the atmosphere taking a slightly lighter tone.

"I take it Logan is not really into hard work?" asked Lorelai, almost rhetorically.

"Don't get me wrong, I love my brother, but hard work is practically a foreign concept to him," said Honor. "He took an entire year of Yale to sail around the world."

"Well that doesn't seem like a complete waste of time," said Lorelai.

"He only made it as far as Fiji," said Rory.

"Bar one, he was kicked out of every ridiculously expensive private school he was sent to and that was only because he was not there long enough before graduation," said Honor. "When he was fifteen and at Gratin, he owed his English teacher a paper but he couldn't be bothered to do it for the deadline so he locked his teacher into a closet for two days."

"Oh my God!" said Lorelai.

"It probably sounds worse than it is," said Honor. "It was spacious and he left him food, water and a bowl to use whatever way he chose."

"Gross!" said Rory.

"Strangely they did not kick him out for another month," Honor reminisced. "Filling the pool with jello the day of the swim team's match to get into the finals proved to be the last straw."

Rory laughed at the image of this, "Logan was worried you were going to tell embarrassing stories."

"Embarrassing? Logan is proud of that. Now if you want embarrassng. . . " she said, causing Rory and Loreai to nod eagerly. "OK, so Logan is twelve and we are at this stupid garden party of one of our parent's friends. Logan was bored and this was before the sub-party years so he decides to climb this tree."

"Because he's a boy and it is some strange compulsion," Lorelai added in, rolling her eyes.

"Exactly!" said Honor. "So he is wearing these shorts and they get snagged on a branch and as he continues to climb up the tree the snag becomes a rather large rip and basically, the entire party got a lovely view of his Mighty Morphin Power Rangers boxers.

"No!" exclaimed Lorelai with glee as Rory began laughing. "Oh that's a good one."

"Wait, was this before or after his Who's the Boss? phase?" asked Rory.

"About the same time I think," said Honor. "Logan had some pretty weird taste in TV shows."

"Oh boy," said Lorelai. "I knew the whole 'I'm too cool to be this blond and rich' thing had to be an act!"

"Anyway, let's move on to something else," said Honor. "We can't focus the entire afternoon on my brother, he'd get too much of a kick out of it."

"How about we talk about the rabbits that have suddenly appeared in the dining room?" suggested Rory.

"What!" asked Lorelai, her head spinning around to see that there were in fact several rabbits, happily hopping around the Dragonfly much to the confusement of the guests. "How the what the why the what?"

"All very good questions," said Rory.

"How did these get in here?" asked Lorelai, standing up and beginning to walk forward before stopping in her place as a revelation hit her. She clenched her firsts at her side and her eyes narrowed as a single word rolled out of her mouth in a low and menacing tone. "Kirk."

"Who is Kirk?" Honor quietly asked.

"A dead man," said Lorelai, walking with determination into the reception where she saw another ten rabbits or so and amongst them was Kirk. She walked over to him and grabbed him by the lapels of his jacket. "What have you done!" she shreiked.

"Now Lorelai hear me out," Kirk pleaded.

"Hear you out?" asked Lorelai. "You've turned my Inn into a zoo! I'm going to kill you!"

"This was my business proposition but you wouldn't hear me out," complained Kirk.

"So you decided to show me?" asked Lorelai, hysteria rising in her voice. "I have guests Kirk, guests who are paying me very good money to eat their lunch in a nice, hygenic, rabbit free environment!"

"I just thought they would add to the charm of the Inn," said Kirk. "Put you over your competition, help draw people in, I mean kids love them."

"What made you think I would want thirty odd rabbits taking over my inn?" asked Lorelai.

"Well you already have horses I didn't think it was that more of a stretch, besides rabbits are smaller."

"Two! I have two horses! And they are outside, in the stables, where animals belong!"

"So you want me to put the rabbits in stables?" asked Kirk.

"No I want you to take them away, far away from here before I stangle you with one," threatened Lorelai.

"I don't think you can really strangle someone with a rabbit."

"Kirk!"

"I'm on it," said Kirk, shuffling out of Lorelai's grasp and starting to round up the rabbits he had unleased on the Dragonfly Inn. She walked back into the dining room in a state of shock, earning concerned if not slightly amused looks from Rory and Honor.

"Is she OK?" Honor whispered to Rory.

"She will be," said Rory. "Just give her a minute."

"So, Honor," said Lorelai, after taking a deep breath. "Have you and Josh set a date yet?"

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	6. Haunted Keg

**The Reigning Huntzberger**

**A/N:** Thanks for the reviews, nice to know some people are still reading. More dialouge stealing from the show going on in this episode, just thought I'd tell you in case you thought I was trying to pass it off as my own, I'm not, I just liked the scene and decided to integrate it in. Enjoy!

_Chapter 6: Haunted Keg_

It had been a crazy summer.

It had felt like one hectic day after the next and today was no exception as far as Rory Gilmore was concerned. "Mom I'm home but I can't stay long!" she yelled as she burst through the door with a flourish, throwing her keys on the coffee table before racing to her room to get changed.

"Late night at the office?" Lorelai asked from her comfortable position on the living room couch, barely looking up from the magazine she was reading as if her daughter speeding through the house was a regular occurrence. To be fair, it was not far off it.

"Yep," said Rory, discarding her work clothes. Logan was due to pick her up in fifteen minutes to take her to his new apartment. They had not seen each other in a couple of days and they were going to have some time to themselves before his official house warming party kicked off. She had planned to spend a few hours pampering herself in preparation for the party, or more specifically alone time with Logan, but there had been a rush to get a last minute story pushed through at the Fairfield Eagle, the newspaper she had been interning at for the past eight weeks and as a result she had to work later than she had expected. Luckily, being a Gilmore girl, she was well adapted to running late and having to get ready in a flash, something which had served her well that summer, she realised while rummaging through her wardrobe looking for an outfit. Rory recognised how frantic her life had become recently, she was almost always in a rush but in an odd sort of way, she quite liked it.

She loved working in the newspaper office, the atmosphere there suited her perfectly and she quickly found a rhythm and settled in with ease. She had entered the office everyday with a goal; to prove to herself and her colleagues that she belonged there, working alongside them and she felt that she had succeeded. Not only did her boss think she was intelligent, competent and excellent at anticipating needs, which she already knew thanks to her previous internship, but he also saw great potential in her writing.

Looking back on it, Rory felt that Mitchum's bad performance review had done her a lot of good. He may have been completely justified in what he said, maybe she had been too timid to jump in, but once she knew where her weakness was she had worked on it and had oozed confidence during her day's work and put herself forward at every opportunity, impressing her boss and editor Mark Rafferty immensely. The blow her ego had taken from Mitchum Huntzberger had been tough, but after summer's hard work, Rory was more confident than ever that she wanted to be a reporter and furthermore, that she could be a reporter. With this clarity came a new sense of drive and determination that helped make the prospect of a new semester at Yale a lot more exciting than it had seemed a few short months ago.

While the summer had been great for her in that she knew for certain what she wanted to do with her life, it had also put a strain on her relationship with Logan, who had somehow managed to be even busier than her. He had been jetting off to a variety of locations all summer, never managing to stay in Connecticut for longer than five days at a time, meaning they had to schedule their time together which was wearing them both down. Another reason why she was looking forward to school starting was that Logan's schedule would be less demanding and he would not be flying out every other day, giving them more time to spend together.

"Mom do you know where my silver earrings are?" asked Rory, looking through her disorganised jewellery box to no avail.

"The tear drop ones?"

"Yeah."

"I think they are in my room, I'll go look," offered Lorelai. "Though it could take a while, my room has reached new realms of messiness."

Just then, they heard someone knock on the front door and as Rory checked the time she realised it must be Logan who was annoyingly punctual. "Go!" Rory pleaded.

As Lorelai raced upstairs, Rory shoved her feet into her shoes and went to let Logan in. She had barely opened the door when Logan's lips were on hers and his hands were on her waist as he kissed her. "Well hello to you too," she smiled, that sense of panic and being flustered created by getting ready quickly melting away instantly.

"Hey Ace," he grinned, "You are looking particularly lovely tonight."

"Well absence makes the heart and eyes grow fonder," Rory reminded him.

"So are you ready to go?"

"Almost," she said, slipping out of his grasp and walking to the base of the stairs. "Mom!"

"Got them!" came Lorelai's voice ahead of her as she came trundling down the stairs seconds later, holding the earrings in front of her triumphantly. "They were trying to hide in with my scarves but their cunning was no match for me."

"Thank you," said Rory, taking them off her and putting them on.

"Hi Lorelai," Logan greeted her.

"Hey Logan, did you have a nice time in Vermont?" she asked.

"Vancouver and no," he said with a slight smile.

"OK, ready now," said Rory. "I'll see you later mom."

"Bye!" said Lorelai as she watched the couple leave, Logan giving her a small wave before leading Rory out the door, his arms wrapped around her waist.

"Ah to be young and in love," she said to herself. "Wait, I am!" With this thought, Lorelai lifted up the phone and dialled out. "Oh Luuuuuuuke," she crooned. "Whatcha doing?"

……

"We are going to have to move and get ready soon, people are due to start arriving in about an hour," said Logan reluctantly as he played with Rory's hair.

"Hey we _were_ ready until we made it into the apartment," said Rory. "Actually until we made it into the elevator."

At this they both smiled, snuggling into each other more, with only the throw from the sofa covering them, their clothes long ago discarded, now lying on the floor in a haphazard trail from the door to the couch where they were now located.

"What can I say? I missed you Ace."

"I missed you too," she said, giving him a quick kiss as if to prove her point.

"That was my plan," he joked. "So what do you think of the new place?"

"I like," said Rory, "I like it a lot, well what I can see of it from here on the couch, which by the way is very comfortable. The pool table is a nice touch, I can see a coffee maker in the kitchen so that's all good and I love the view of the old campus. I think it's great," she concluded. "And I haven't even seen the bedroom yet."

Logan shook his head with a resigned look, "Wow. OK fine, but don't think this is going to work a second time," he said getting up and heading into the other room.

"No Logan . . . I didn't mean . . . I seriously meant that I hadn't seen the bedroom yet," she protested.

"You're making me feel cheap Ace," he said.

"Logan!" she giggled. "I swear I wasn't working blue!" she said as she followed him to the bedroom nonetheless.

A few hours later and the party was in full swing. The apartment was filled with people, the music was loud, the people were merry and on their way to being more than tipsy; it had all the makings of a typical Logan Huntzberger party. "Well Logan I think you can consider this place well and truly warmed," said Finn while pouring himself another drink. "I think I'm going to have some rather good times here. When will my key be ready?"

"I'll have to check with the guy at the key cutting place," said Logan, "But it should be sometime next century."

"Are you saying you don't trust me?" asked Finn, who everyone could see was deeply hurt by this.

"I'm saying that last time you were alone in my dorm at Yale, Lanny came back to find the curtains on fire," said Logan.

"That was not my fault, your TV was wired wrong!" said Finn.

"I'm sure that made for a logical explanation on Planet Finn but here on Earth it doesn't quite cut it," said Logan. "How did you even get in?" While the incident they were talking about had taken place a year ago, they never had fully gotten to the bottom of it, something which had left Logan and everyone else bewildered, accepting that it was just another mystery to be written off as 'A Finn thing.'

"You entrusted me with a key."

"Oh please, I've never been that high!" said Logan. "Well maybe once but I was seventeen and that was a really boring camping trip and so had nothing to do with this."

"Oh alright you accidentally left it in my dorm one night but this is discrimination!" exclaimed Finn, outraged. "I bet Rory has a key! Is that it? Do I have to sleep with you to get a key?"

"It might help," Logan joked, giving a little wink, which quickly vanished when he noticed a look of consideration on Finn's face. With a sign, he attempted to reason with Finn, a consistently pointless endeavour. "Rory doesn't have a key. I just moved in, _I _barely have a key."

"So you just haven't had time yet to get me a key?"

"You are not getting a key Finn, I like this place, I would like to keep it in one piece and relatively free of scorch marks," said Logan.

"What will it take for me to convince you to get me a key?" asked Finn, who was working himself into a diva-esque strop.

"It would involve me being far drunker than you," said Logan.

"Impossible!" said Colin, coming into the end of the conversation, but as always able to contribute, despite having no idea what was being discussed.

"Ah Colin, just in time to make one of you patented sarcastic comments about my alcohol consumption," said Finn, with a note of boredom in his voice. "How unoriginal."

"Logan," said Colin, pointedly ignoring the sulking Finn. "Here's your key back, I found the CD just fine."

Logan winced as Finn gave a shriek of horror, "_Him_? You gave him a key?"

"He was packing for Europe, I had one of the CDs he wanted to upload to his iPod and I didn't have time to swing by to get it for him so I let him _borrow_ the key to get it himself," Logan explained.

"But it is a spare correct?" asked Finn.

"Yeah . . ." said Logan hesitantly. "But . . ."

"Then I demand to have it!" said Finn, holding out his hand expectantly.

"Sorry, I can't do that," apologised Logan.

"Give it to me or I will take it by force," threatened Finn.

Sighing, Logan pulled out the waistband of his trousers and dropping the key into his boxers. Desperate times called for desperate, if not slightly immature measures. "Finn," started Logan slowly, determined to make himself clear and get through to his Australian friend. "There is no way you are getting a key to my precious new apartment."

"Don't think I won't go in there!" said Finn as he lunged for Logan.

Unaware of the mayhem that was breaking out elsewhere in the apartment, Rory was talking to Robert by the pool table. "So are you going to Europe with Colin and Finn?"

"Yeah, heading out next week," he said. "It should be fun. I'm really looking forward to going to the London Dungeons. Colin was telling me that they went there last summer and it really freaked Finn out and made him jumpy for the next few days. Then, later, when they were at a party, Finn got so worked up he was convinced the keg was moving by itself and started running about screaming that it was haunted. By the way, did you know that Finn has his hands down your boyfriend's pants?"

"What?" asked Rory, still laughing at the story as she turned around to see that Finn had wrestled Logan to the ground and removed his belt which he was holding between his teeth as he fished around in Logan's pants while Logan squirmed, trying to get free.

"Excuse me a minute," said Rory politely to an amused Robert as she headed over to save Logan. However by the time she reached them, Logan had managed to kick Finn off him and was currently doing up his trousers again. "You are freakishly strong!" he complained, a traumatised look on his face.

"And surprisingly dexterous," noted Colin when he saw that Finn had the key.

"Uh Finn, may I have a word with you?" asked Rory, tapping him on the shoulder, an innocent smile on her face.

"Why yes love," said Finn who was looking rather pleased with himself. Rory swiftly slapped him around the back of his head and snapped the key out of his hands. "Don't you ever go anywhere near my boyfriend's pants again, do you hear me?"

"I'm sorry, I forgot to say OUCH! Quite the hard hand you've got on you," complained Finn, rubbing the back of his head with a look of pain. "I hope you don't go near Logan's pants with that hand. OUCH!" he yelled as she hit him again. "God, it's not like he's my type anyway. This party sucks. Where's Rosemary? Maybe I can convince her to nurse my head wound."

"Nice to know I have you to defend my honour," joked Logan as Finn quickly forgot about these events and wandered aimlessly. "But what, you couldn't have jumped in twenty seconds earlier before the actual molesting began?"

"What were you thinking putting the key down your pants?" asked Rory, her eyes dancing with amusement.

"That Finn's homosexuality wasn't as rampant as it seemed?"

"You are an idiot," she told him with a smile.

"Well at least I have you to keep my idiocy in check," he said kissing her. "By the way keep the key."

"What?" she asked surprised.

"I had it cut for you," said Logan. "It only makes sense to give a spare key to someone in case you lose yours or lock yourself out and I figured you would be the most sensible person to give it too."

"That's why you are giving me the key?" asked Rory, raising an eyebrow. "Because I'm the most sensible person to have it?" Her voice made it seem like she was teasing him and yes, to an extent she was, but beneath the surface her heart was racing, desperate for the real reason to be confirmed to her. A key was significant in any relationship, but in a relationship with Logan Huntzberger, it was practically ground breaking.

"Yes that's a contributing factor," he said. If he was even slightly awkward he was hiding it well. "Plus you know…you will probably be spending a certain amount of time here…and this way you can hang out here even when I'm not in. It can be your haven for when Paris starts driving you nuts," he finished with a joke, trying not to make giving Rory a key to his apartment a big deal when they both knew it was.

"Oh I haven't told you the best part about my living conditions this year," said Rory. "Doyle's living with us as well."

"No," said Logan, wincing for her.

"Yep," Rory confirmed. "The three of us are getting a place off campus together."

"Then you definitely need that key Ace. Besides, I want you to have it."

"OK," she said, putting it in her pocket, the smile on her face giving away how pleased she was. "Thanks."

"Rory!" Stephanie's voice rang out, ruining the moment.

"Sure greet her but not me whose apartment this is and who has been your loyal friend for the past eight years," said Logan, with mock offence.

"What can I say, I like Rory better," said Stephanie. "Besides I found this in the elevator and this one in the hall and they looked familiar so I thought you might want them back," she said holding up Rory's shoes that had been discarded in her and Logan's haste to make it inside. Rory blushed, "Thanks Steph," she said, taking them off her before slipping them on her bare feet. "They complete the ensemble."

"Oh I'm sure you could have gotten away with the whole barefooted free spirit thing for the rest of the night," Stephanie assured her. "But now that you've got your dancing shoes on lets hit the floor. Say goodbye to Logan."

"Goodbye Logan," said Rory obediently, giving him a quick kiss before allowing herself to be led to a clearing by a dancing Stephanie.

……

"Is everything alright for everyone?" asked Emily.

"Yeah, delicious grandma," said Rory, spearing another piece of chicken with her fork. It was Friday night once again and so Lorelai and Rory were in Hartford for dinner.

"Good, so any news with you girls?" asked Emily.

"Not really," said Rory.

"We started remodelling the house," Lorelai announced.

"Why?" asked Emily, always one to enquire further.

"Well Luke is going to be moving in soon and there isn't really enough room as it is so I figured time for a change."

"Why don't you just buy a new house together?" asked Emily.

"Because I love my house, I don't want to move and Luke is more than happy to live at my house," said Lorelai.

"Have you and Luke set a date yet?" asked Emily, although clearly disapproving of her daughter's choice of living arrangements.

"Yes actually," said Lorelai, smiling. "June 3rd."

"Oh a summer wedding, excellent!" said Emily pleased. "How are all the arrangements going?"

"Really well," said Lorelai. "I've got my dress and the bridesmaids'. The church and hall are booked, Sookie is doing the catering and everything is going great, I'm almost done."

"When should I expect my invitation?" asked Emily.

"Some time next week, I still have a few more to fill in before I can send them," said Lorelai. "Oh Rory, I need to get Honor's address off you."

"Sure it's in my organiser, remind me when we get home," said Rory.

"Honor who?" asked Emily, quick to find out more about anyone in Lorelai's life that she did not know,

"Honor Huntzberger," said Lorelai.

"How do you know her?" asked Emily, clearly confused.

"Well mom, I don't know if you've heard but Rory sort of knows her brother," said Lorelai.

"Don't be smart Lorelai, I meant why would you want Honor Huntzberger's address?"

"To invite her to the wedding."

"Why are you inviting her to the wedding?" asked Emily.

"So I can lure her into a booth and dump gunge on her, film it and use it as the basis for the pilot of my new kids' tv show, why do you think mom?" said Lorelai, exasperated. "Rory introduced us, we had a nice time, I'm going to her wedding and she's going to mine, simple as that."

"_You_ are going to Honor Huntzberger's wedding?" asked Emily, incredulously, the pitch of her voice getting higher.

"Yes, she invited me and Luke."

"_Luke_ is going to Honor Huntzberger's wedding?"

"Gee mom, try to hide your shock and horror."

"I'm sorry, I just didn't realise that you two were such good friends," said Emily, regaining her composure.

"We're not, we've only met a couple of times mom. Her, Rory and me go for lunch every now and again, we get on well, we are both getting married, it's not that big of a deal," said Lorelai, wanting to get off the subject so her mother would stop gazing at her so intently.

"Honor Huntzberger's wedding will be the event of the season," said Emily. "It most certainly will be a big deal."

"Why do you keep saying Honor's name like that?" asked Lorelai.

"Like what?" snapped Emily.

"Like you are trying to remind us of her last name, we know what it is mom," said Lorelai, clearly annoyed that Emily could not picture her at a Huntzberger event.

"Grandma are there any more potatoes?" Rory intervened. "These are really good potatoes."

"Janice, my granddaughter would like more potatoes!" called Emily to the maid, giving Lorelai a stern look.

…

"Is it wrong that I'm still hungry?" asked Lorelai, as the pulled up into the driveway.

"Yes," said Rory. "Grandma's dinner was amazing tonight."

"Is your disagreement going to stop you ordering something from Al's with me?"

"Nope."

"Good," said Lorelai, as she opened the door. "I'll go get the menu."

Rory flopped on to the living room sofa, kicking off her shoes and placing her feet up on the coffee table. "Ah home sweet home!"

"Home? Huh, that's a laugh!" said Lorelai, sitting down beside her daughter. "Which reminds me I can't believe you didn't tell me."

"What are you talking about?" asked Rory confused. "Didn't tell you what?"

"That you moved in with Logan."

"What? I didn't move in with Logan!" said Rory. "What would make you think that?"

"Well sorry, but I was under the impression that your home is the place where you sleep every night and so you most certainly do not live here," said Lorelai. "I haven't seen you in almost a week!"

"So I've been staying over at Logan's a lot this week, it doesn't mean I live with him!" protested Rory. "It's just handier when I'm working at the paper the next day and he has just moved into his new apartment and I was helping him get set up and with him flying off to London for a week today, I just wanted to spend some time with him and well… this week is not the best example."

"Who are you kidding? You have slept here like three times over the entire summer!"

"Why must you grossly exaggerate everything?" asked Rory.

"To prove a point," said Lorelai, simply. "Which is that the summer is almost over and I haven't got to spend as much time with you as I thought I would."

"Oh," said Rory with sudden understanding. "So this is all about you."

"Well duh, about time you caught up," said Lorelai, rolling her eyes. "You know if you had lived here this summer you might have gotten to know me better and could have caught on to where all of this was coming from a lot sooner."

"And I see you have your theme for this evening," noted Rory. "I'm sorry I haven't been around much, I've just been busy."

"I know hun and I get that you and Logan are just trying to grab some time whenever you can, that's the trouble when your boyfriend is the Reigning Huntzberger but the Reigning Lorelai misses you too," Lorelai pouted.

Rory sighed with a smile, "You are three. . . and I missed you as well."

"Goodie!" said Lorelai, bouncing up and down excitedly. "OK so what do you want from Al's?"

"Indian?" asked Rory hopefully.

Lorelai made a noise like a buzzer, "Sorry wrong answer, go straight to jail, do not pass go and do not collect $200."

It was now Rory's turn to pout and she folded her arms obstinately. "Logan would let me order Indian, maybe I'll go over to his place and eat there," she threatened.

"I thought he was London?"

"He is, I have a key."

"See, you do live there!" exclaimed Lorelai victoriously.

"Stop it! I do not live with Logan!" said Rory, "It is just practical for me to have a key."

"Yes, practical because you live there," said Lorelai in a sing song voice.

"Oh jeez!" said Rory, getting up and heading to her room to get changed. "Just order me some chicken chow mein. I can't talk to you when you're like this!"

"Will I have it delivered to your place or here?" Lorelai called after her, smiling when she heard Rory's bedroom door slam shut. That had been fun.

…

Logan sighed as he made it into his London hotel room after another day filled with boring meetings. He felt like all he had done all summer was sit in one boring meeting after another, listening to men in suits tell him how to run the company. He knew that a lot of the meetings were important, he just did not know why there where so many of them, why they had to be a plane journey away or why he had to attend them all. He slackened his tie and threw off his jacket before going in search of the room service menu, he didn't feel like eating out tonight. At first he had tried consoling himself with the knowledge that he at least made it to Europe this summer, but without Colin, Finn and a large wheel of cheese it was not in the same league. He had plenty of friends in London who he had met at one of his boarding schools or another that he could have called and met up with but it would not be the same when he knew that the guys were probably bar hopping in Barcelona by now.

Logan Huntzberger missed his life. He missed staying out to all hours drinking with his stupid friends, he missed pulling crazy pranks, he even missed getting bailed out of jail and he definitely missed seeing his girlfriend everyday. At the low points of the summer he had felt like he was in a relationship with her answering machine as he was forced to fly half way around the world for pointless meetings. God help him he was even looking forward to getting back to classes, anything other than the new life that had been crafted for him over the past few months. When he thought about it he realised that his life this summer had been far more hectic than he would have liked.

Yep, it had been a crazy summer.


	7. Those Hazy, Crazy Nights

**The Reigning Huntzberger**

**A/N:** Sorry for the delay but I had some really important exams and didn't have a lot of time to work on this chapter until recently.This is a little bit of a filler chapter, a sort of calm before the storm but it is pretty long so hopefully that will make up for the lack of addition to the plot. Although in this case I hear quantity and quality are miles apart but I just feel like I have to get something posted before people begin to think I've dropped off the face of the earth.

_Chapter Seven: Those Hazy, Crazy Nights_

"I can't believe you are pretending that you live here!" said Lorelai as she looked about the apartment her daughter shared with Paris and Doyle. It was a week until school started back up and Rory had spent the last few days moving her stuff in before inviting her mother over to see it, something she was regretting. "If you are trying to convince me that you don't live with Logan this is not the way to go about it. I mean no one could actually live here, rats maybe but not regular rats, no this place is too run down for them, it would have to be those Rodents Of Unusual Size that are used to the fire swamps and I think even for them this would be a trade down. The fire swamps are certainly in a safer area."

"Well Westly and Buttercup made it through the fire swamps and I will make it through living here," said Rory, determined to change the subject, "So did you finally get all the invitations sent out?"

"Yep!" said Lorelai excitedly, "And to celebrate I am throwing myself the most wonderful engagement party this Friday night."

"Friday night?" asked Rory increduously.

"Friday night," Lorelai confirmed.

"How do you plan on getting us both out of dinner?" asked Rory.

"I already have," Lorelai told her proudly. "I told them that it was the town that was organising it, not me so I didn't have a choice in the day and that it was such a sweet thing to do that I couldn't change it. So, I had her on the ropes and then it occurred to me-invite her! She can't object too much if you invite her and so my engagement party is on friday night."

"Grandma and Grandpa are coming to a party in Stars Hollow?"

"Nope."

"But I thought you said. . . "

"Ah but I haven't told you my other stroke of genius," said Lorelai. "I told her it was themed and that everyone had to come in costume."

"Since when was it themed?" asked Rory.

"Since I realised it was the perfect excuse to get Luke to wear tights," said Lorelai, wiggling her eyebrows mischeviously. "The point is there is no way Richard and Emily Gilmore are going to get dressed up in costumes to party it up in Stars Hollow but they can't be mad because they are invited and know the full details of it."

"My God that is brilliant," said Rory, a look of reverence on her face. "So what is the theme?"

"Myths and Legends, as in unicorns are a myth but I'm a legend," Lorelai chirped.

"So what are you and Luke going as that involves him in tights?"

"Robin Hood and Maid Marion."

"You were watching 'Robin Hood: Men In Tights' when you got the idea for this party weren't you?" asked Rory, already knowing the answer.

"Maybe," said Lorelai. "Let's go for lunch, I'm starving, besides if we were here another five minutes someone would probably burst into the apartment and beat us to death."

"It's not that bad," insisted Rory.

"Yes it is," said Lorelai. "After lunch can you take me to your nice place . . . uh I mean can I see where Logan lives . . . alone," she added when she got one of her daughter's famous withering stares. Maybe she had pushed this whole 'you live with Logan' thing too far, although it did continue to be exceedingly entertaining for her.

"After lunch I'll give him a call and see if he would mind us dropping in for a few minutes just to say hi," Rory compromised.

"Goodie! I'm sure his place is very swanky."

"It definitely makes this place look like a hole," said Rory.

"Yeah I don't think that has anything to do with Logan's place," quipped Lorelai.

"Let's go."

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"Man even the elevator in this place is posh, I definitely approve," said Lorelai as they walked down the hall to Logan's apartment.

"Well I'm sure Logan will be very glad to hear that," said Rory as she knocked on the door.

"Why are you knocking? Can't you just use your key?" asked Lorelai.

"I could but that would be an abuse of the key and an evasion of privacy," said Rory. The door swung open a few seconds later and Logan greeted them with a smile. "Hey Lorelai, hi Ace," he said giving Rory a quick kiss, "Come on in."

"Don't mind if I do," said Lorelai, entering the apartment.

"Why did you knock? You never knock," asked Logan as he closed the door behind them.

"Ah ha!" said Lorelai beaming smugly at her daughter.

"Don't encourage her," muttered Rory.

"I didn't know that I was," apologised Logan as Lorelai walked around the place carefully inspecting it, "Now _this _is what I'm talking about! It's spacious, tastefully decorated and most importantly not a drug dealer in sight."

"That was the selling point for me," said Logan, slightly confused.

"Tell me Logan, what do you think of Rory's current living conditions?"

"What? You mean with Paris and Doyle? I think she is becoming a bit of a masochist," said Logan.

"Not not that, I mean the actual apartment itself if you think that cess pool can actually pass for an apartment," said Lorelai.

"Mom, will you drop it?" said an increasingly irritated Rory.

"I haven't seen it yet," Logan admitted.

"Lucky you, your eyes and your nose and all other parts of you will be grateful," said Lorelai. "Can't you convince her to move, I apparently have lost my pull with my one and only daughter."

"Oh I don't know how much pull I have with her," said Logan, "I can't even get a say in our choice of movies."

"Maybe if we worked together, you know between us I think we could convince her," suggested Lorelai.

"Oh unholy alliance!" exclaimed Rory, flustered. "Will you two stop talking about me as if I weren't here? I'm not moving, deal with it."

"No need to get snappy," Lorelai pouted.

"Well I think we should be going," said Rory, "Before she decides to nest here or something."

"But I don't want to go!" protested Lorelai. "It's pretty here! The walls are a nice colour and the sofa looks comfy, can I sit on the sofa first? Logan you wouldn't mind if I sat on the sofa, would you? See he doesn't mind!" she ranted as Rory gently pulled her in the direction of the door.

"Out!" Rory commanded as she nudged her out into the hall before turning to face Logan.

"I'll call you later," said Logan, kissing her.

"You better," warned Rory playfully, leaning in for another kiss, rolling her eyes when Lorelai started making loud lip smacking noises behind them.

"Bye Lorelai," Logan called out to her.

"Bye blond boy with the pretty apartment!"

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The next night Rory and Logan were enjoying a cosy night in, snuggled up in each other's embrace in front of the fire in Logan's apartment.

"This is nice," said Rory, her head resting on Logan's shoulder. "I like it when we are not rushing about getting crazy and not seeing each other."

"Me too," said Logan. "So I know we were supposed to go out on Thursday night but . . ."

"No!" moaned Rory, sitting up straight in protest.

"You don't even know what I was going to say!" protested Logan.

"Yes I do, you are going to tell me that you have to cancel because you suddenly have to attend a meeting in Madagascar or Timbuctu or somewhere else that isn't here," Rory complained.

"That wasn't what I was going to say," said Logan, an amused smile on his face. "What I was going to say was that I was supposed to meet with two of the new partners of the Chicago paper but because I wanted to see you I suggested that we turn it into a dinner with our significant others and I offered to host it."

Rory looked at him incredulously, "You are going to host a proper society function?"

"_We _are going to host a business dinner," he corrected, "But yes that was the general idea."

"You who has been boycotting such occasions your entire life and forming wild sub-parties at the ones you couldn't get out of?"

"You are teasing me," Logan noted. "That or you don't have any faith in me."

"Oh I have faith that you can do anything you set your mind to, you know that," said Rory supportively. "I just can't imagine you hosting a business dinner and here of all places."

"What's wrong with this place?" asked Logan. "I thought you liked it and Lorelai gave it the Gilmore stamp of approval."

"I love this place," Rory assured him. "But I mean you don't even have a dining table! Not to mention a maid or a cook, your business partners and their wives will look at us like we are peasants!"

"All good points," Logan admitted. "Look I just think I should start doing things a different way. I mean just because I'm now the head of the company and have to deal with people ten, twenty, thirty years older than me on a regular basis doesn't mean that _I_ suddenly have to age thirty years and try to be something I'm not. I am twenty two, I'm young, I'm still a student so I should do things in a young, fresh way. This isn't going to be one of those stuffy, society dinners that they are used to and while it might be a new way of doing business I think it could work in my favour."

"You know I think you are right," said Rory impressed. "But this still requires a lot of planning if we are going to pull it off without them thinking of us as children."

"So you are on board?" Logan asked hopefully.

"Yes I am."

"And you are not mad that we aren't going out just the two of us?"

"A little disappointed perhaps but not mad," Rory assured him, "I understand that you are a business man now and must do such business man things."

"Now you are definitely teasing me," he grinned.

"You are surprisingly quick on the up take," said Rory. "So what did you have in mind?"

"Well I was thinking first of all that I would get a dining room table," suggested Logan. "Don't think these are the kind of people that would be willing to eat off the pool table."

"They don't know what they are missing," said Rory. "Though I see you still haven't managed to get the curry stains off it. What else?"

"Dress code would be smart casual . . ."

"I'll get out my slacks," joked Rory.

"I will cook some simple but delicious food. . . "

"_You _are going to cook?"

"Are you going to continue interrupting me to make a joke at everything I say?" asked Logan, smiling when Rory mimed pulling a zip across her mouth. "Thank you and yes I am going to cook, I'll have you know I am a very good cook, I just can't be bothered to do it very often but on Thursday night I will get out my 'kiss the chef' apron and whip up a storm in the kitchen. Then I'll win them over with my charm, you'll attack them with your smile and witty conversation, we'll all have a few drinks and you'll keep the women entertained while I make deals with the men."

"Careful, your Huntzberger roots are showing," Rory teased. "I never knew I was dating a wise society man."

"Just wait until you see me in action."

"Dirty," Rory giggled.

"Careful, your Lorelai roots are showing," said Logan rolling his eyes.

"We are in for such a busy week!" said Rory. "Business dinner on Thursday, engagement party on Friday , 8am flight on Saturday morning to Vegas for Colin's 23rd birthday bash, get back at 2am on Monday morning and still have to make it to class for 9am!"

"Yep looks like we are in for a couple of crazy nights, the Thursday being that nervous, slightly stressful kind of crazy, Friday a very literal sense of crazy and the weekend that wonderful 'I don't remember anything about last night except Finn running around in a circle smothered in war paint,' kind of crazy," said Logan.

"Speaking of Finn, does he know about the 8am flight and if so has he killed Colin yet for doing something so stupid as to book that flight or will I have to?" asked Rory.

"It will fall to you. Finn and Colin have decided to go straight from club hopping to the airport," Logan explained. "They'll sleep when we get to the hotel, get up when the sun goes down then hit the casino floor until 8am the next morning."

"Ah those nocturnal friends of ours," said Rory. "So what am I supposed to do while you lot are in the casinos? I mean I'm not 21 for another seven weeks and they are kind of strict about ID in Vegas, it's not like our lovely little pub."

"Oh you'll get in no bother," Logan said. "We are staying in Finn's casino, we'll have VIP passes to get us in everywhere."

"Excuse me?"

"Did you not know about this?" asked Logan.

"No."

"Well as I am to newspapers, Finn is to casinos, that's where his money comes from," explained Logan.

"Why am I not entirely surprised?" said Rory. "So Finn's family owns a Vegas casino? That is so cool!"

"They have a couple, very successful, that's how he got into the club. We've been gambling there since we were fifteen," said Logan. "And if I had known him before that, it's safe to say I would have been there in my preteen years. I love Vegas."

"Do you do anything like regular people?" asked Rory.

"Where would be the fun in that?"

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"I simply had the most wonderful time!" gushed Elaine Umbridge.

"It was our pleasure," said Logan as they saw their guests to the door. They had spent the last three hours selling themselves to the potential partners and their wives over dinner and drinks and things had seemed to have went smoothly.

"And you, you are just the most darling girl!" said Martine Morganstern to Rory as she gave the woman her coat. "We simply must get together again."

"Yes, yes we must," Elaine emphasised.

"So I'll call you on Monday morning?" asked Michael Umbridge.

"Yes and I'll have the papers sent over to both of you," Logan promised, shaking both of the mens' hands.

"Good man," said Kevin Morganstern, "Come on Martine, let's leave these two alone, I'm sure they have better, more exciting things to be doing."

"Than hanging out with these bad girls? I doubt it," Rory teased gently, causing the two women to burst into a fresh batch of frenized giggles.

"Oh you have fallen in with a bad crowd am I going to have to keep an eye on you now?" Logan asked Rory.

"I'd keep a close eye on her anyway," said Elaine, "She's a keeper."

"You two really are the most adorable couple!" exclaimed Martine.

"It's our curse to bear," joked Logan.

"Well we'll be off," said Michael, "Thanks again you two, a very enjoyable evening indeed. Mixed things up a bit, much better than the usual affair."

"Yes, if I never see another salmon puff again I could die a happy man," Kevin agreed.

"You and every business man with a wife in the D.A.R.," said Logan.

"Have a safe journey home!" said Rory, waving goodbye to them as they headed for the elevator before closing the door. "Good lord I'm my grandmother!"

"You think that's bad? I'm my father!"

"This going to add a certain ick factor to the things we are going to get up to later," said Rory.

"Ace!" complained Logan, "That was very unnecessary."

"Well it would seem the evening was a success," said Rory, swiftly moving on.

"Yep, you were a hit," said Logan, "My little seceret weapon."

"What about you? You impressed the men with your savy skills and your in depth knowledge of the newspaper business and charmed everything but the pants of those women!" said Rory.

"You were the one who flirted with the men and played up to the women," said Logan.

"I did not!" protested Rory.

"'Oh Michael, I have no idea where you find the time to get to the gym to keep in such good shape!'" Logan mimicked, his eyes dancing. "And referring to Martine and Elaine as the 'bad girls' was ludicrous! You were shameless."

"I think you are forgetting why I did all that," said Rory, "It was all for the glory of Logan, remember? A little gratitude would be appreciated!"

"I'm not saying I didn't appreciate it, I'm saying that I found it highly amusing and plan to tease you about it," said Logan. "You know we make quite the team."

"We do don't we?" said Rory, a smile on her face, tilting her head up for a kiss.

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"How on earth did you do it?" asked Rory in a note of reverence.

"Magical powers, I must have magical powers," concluded Lorelai.

It was Friday night and the residents of Stars Hollow were out in full force to celebrate Lorelai and Luke's engagement becoming even more official by having the wedding invitations been sent out. There had been some pretty interesting costume choices; Kirk had came as a wizard who had a striking resemblance to Harry Potter, Babette had came as a gnome and Gypsy was in a strange if not slightly terrifying dragon costume. Rory and Logan had came as Titania and Oberon, king and queen of the fairies from Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream,' if it didn't have a literature foundation, Rory wasn't getting that costume. It had made the costume choosing a little more difficult but Rory had claimed that made the result all the better, Now the mother and daughter team were marvelling at Lorelai's persuasuive powers.

Rory giggled as they continued staring, "He refuses to come out from behind the buffet table incase someone sees him. How many hair flicks did it take?"

"I lost count after twenty," said Lorelai. "I have kind of a crank in my neck, I'm going to have to convince him to give me a neck rub later."

"I don't think he is ever talking to you again," said Rory, "You made him wear tights!"

"Oh he loves it!" said Lorelai, "And more importantly I love it. I am having such a good time!"

"Me too," Rory agreed. "It's nice to be able to hang out with you for a little while, then Lane for a while and then Logan. I like it when the people in my life are forced together."

"Is it this weekend you to are heading for Vegas?" asked Lorelai.

"Our flight is in twelve hours," Rory confirmed, checking her watch.

"Well do me a favour, put $20 on red fifteen for me, get me a photo of one of those centurain guys at Ceaser's Palace and if you've had a few drinks stay away from any and all cute wedding chapels," said Lorelai.

"Mom. . ." Rory began to protest.

"Come on honey, didn't The One in Vegas teach us anything?" asked Lorelai.

"That drawing on people's faces is funny?"

"Yes, that and . . . ?"

"Mom come on! I'm not going to get married this weekend."

"You say that now but after a few martinis everything will change," said Lorelai, enjoying the teasing while trying to ignore the niggling feeling in the back of her mind that was urging her to be more serious about this.

"Not that much! We are nowhere near there yet, nor will we be anytime soon," said Rory. "Mom trust me, this weekend is all about Colin and whatever craziness he has planned for us. It's probably just a 48 hour bar crawl."

"Well that's very reassuring, I feel much better about this trip now," said Lorelai.

"Oh my God!" said Rory suddenly. "Look over there."

"Please, that hasn't worked since I was six!" said Lorelai.

"No, seriously, grandma and grandpa are here," said Rory.

Lorelai gave a snort of disbelief, "Nice try, I suppose they are in costume."

"Yep," nodded Rory.

"What did they come as? The Romanovs? They probably are legends in their eyes. Or ooh they could come as their approval of me, I'm pretty sure that's a myth, a little difficult to pull off costume wise but I'm sure they have the resources to make it effective," rambled Lorelai.

"Actually from what I can tell they came as Pocahontas and a leprechaun."

"Wow you've really put a lot of thought into this distraction," said Lorelai. "Not particularly good though, I mean green is so obviously not Richard Gilmore's colour."

"They have spotted us, they'll be on top of us in under ten seconds," warned Rory.

Lorelai frowned, "Are you serious? Dammit if I turn around and they aren't here I'm going to be so annoyed that I gave in."

"Hi grandma! Hi grandpa!" Rory greeted.

"Oh merciful Zeus!" yelped Lorelai upon turning around to see her mother in full Native American dress and looking rather happy about it.

"What kind of greeting is that?" Emily demanded to know.

"And dad! You look like Ireland threw up on you!" exclaimed Lorelai, who was shocked the odd time she saw her father not wearing a bow tie never mind dressed in a bright emerald green suit, velvet top hat to match and was carrying about a pot of gold.

"You look surprised Lorelai," Emily commented.

"I am," said Lorelai, trying to recover from the sight before her.

"Why? You were the one who invited us," she reminded her daughter.

"Yes but I . . ."

"But you what?" asked Emily. "You didn't think we were going to show up?"

"I think your outfits are great," Rory intervened.

"Why thank you Rory," said Richard. "I mentioned the party to one of my business associates and he told me all about this delightful little costume shop he and his wife had used for a masquerade ball they had attended. It was brilliant, they had absolutely everything we could have thought of."

"They were very helpful," Emily agreed ."We just told them the theme was myths and legends and they brought out all these options for us."

"And you went with a leprechaun dad?" asked Lorelai.

"Well I wanted something fun and colourful. It's not everyday we getting invited to such functions," said Richard.

"Well it certainly is colourful," said Lorelai. "I think I need some sunglasses to protect my eyes from the glare."

"Don't be silly," Emily repromanded her. "I must say you two look wonderful. Rory I take it you are a fairy?"

"Queen of the Fairies, Titania to be exact," Rory informed her.

"From Shakespeare?" asked Richard with an approving nod.

"Yeah it just seemed to fit and Logan came as Oberon."

"Logan's here?" asked Emily, happily surprised, looking around to try and spot him in the crowd.

"Somewhere, I lost track of him a while ago," said Rory.

"He's proved very popular with the natives, fresh meat and all that," said Lorelai.

"So where's Luke?" asked Emily.

"Over by the drinks I think," said Lorelai.

"I could use with some refreshment myself," said Richard, offering Emily his arm. "Shall we?"

"We'll talk to you later," said Emily, allowing herself to be led off by her husband.

"Pinch me," commanded Lorelai when they had walked off, before shrieking in pain when Rory obliged. "Ouch what the hell was that for?"

"You told me to pinch you."

"But you weren't supposed to make it hurt!" protested Lorelai.

"Yes you are, because it is the pain that is supposed to wake you up," said Rory.

"Well it didn't because I am still in this nightmare world where Emily and Richard Gilmore came to my engagement party in fancy dress," ranted Lorelai. "What are they even doing here?"

"Chasing after their lucky charms?"

"Were you born this annoying or is this something I've done?" asked Lorelai, annoyed that Rory was not indulging her.

"Part you, part the media," said Rory. "Now stop moaning, this is your engagment party. Go pry Luke away from behind the table and dance or something."

"Or something eh?" asked Lorelai, wiggling her eyebrows suggestiveley.

"Go!"

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On Saturday morning, Rory, Logan, Colin, Finn, Stephanie, Rosemary and Juliet were all checked into the Copa Cabana Hotel and Casino and were currently sprawled out in Rory and Logan's room, where the girls were looking through the list of services the hotel offered and Colin and Finn were raiding the mini bar in search of a cure for their hangovers. Straight from clubs to plane was a plan they had not thoroughly thought through and so Colin was being punished by his own head for booking the 8am flight that had caused so much protest from everyone else, despite his reasoning of cramming in as much Vegas time as possible.

"So what do you want to do first?" asked Rory.

"Drink until I have no recollection of this trip," said Finn.

"Well that was a given," said Stephanie. "I was thinking that us girls should go to the spa, relax and pamper ourselves for a few hours."

"And how exactly does that celebrate my birth?" asked Colin.

"Because then we will be even prettier when we go out with you tonight, making you look better on your birthday," Stephanie explained.

Colin thought this over for a few moments, "As you were. OK so my game plan is to go back to my room, sleep for at least two hours, get up, get ready, hit the strip, get very, very drunk then come back here to gamble."

"Drinking then gambling is that the best idea?" asked Rory.

"It's my birthday Gilmore, you can't question me on my birthday," said Colin. "Besides I find that I play better when I'm drunk."

"Probably because you can't tell the difference between black and red," said Logan.

"Or sixes and nines," Finn added in.

"Actually the entire casino is just a big blurry mess," said Logan.

"Which works out perfectly for me because it heightens the chance of me never remembering just what ridiculous amount of money I've lost," said Colin.

"I'm making Bloody Mary's who's up for it?" asked Finn, producing a large bottle of vodka from his own coat.

"I'll have one, then I'm going to get some shut eye," said Colin.

"I'll have one Finn but I'll take it back to my room as well," said Juliet.

"Yeah I'm kind of tired too," said Rory.

"No!" said Finn. "This is not happening, you can't all be going to bed now, we're young, beautiful, rich and in Vegas! Now is not the time to sleep."

"Finn it's daylight outside, anything before six pm is early for you, why are you the one who wants to stay up?" asked Rosemary.

"Because it's Vegas! It never sleeps and so neither shall I!" Finn proclaimed. "Logan do you agree with this ludicrosy?"

"Sorry man but I could do with a few hours kip, it's been a long week," said Logan.

"This is ridiculous, no Bloody Mary's for any of you! I'm going to see if I can find my father, he'll drink with me." The six Yalies left in the suite all had amused smiles on their faces as Finn stormed out of the room, clinking away with the contents of the mini bar stored in his pockets.

"OK so we are going to leave you two alone but Rory we will be back in a few hours for you, I'll have our spa appointments all arranged," said Stephanie.

"Sounds great," said Rory.

"And while the girls are doing that we can track down Finn, say hello to Finn senior and maybe play a little black jack," said Colin.

"Sure thing," said Logan.

"OK everybody, break!" joked Colin, and the rest of them left for their own rooms leaving Rory and Logan alone.

"We should never have got adjoining rooms," said Logan, "Having the middle one means we have became party central."

"Isn't that your preferred location?"

"Usually, but usually I don't have my lovely girlfriend with me on these sort of trips who recently, last few days not included, I haven't been seeing anywhere as much of as I'd like," said Logan.

"Well the doors do lock," Rory reminded him.

"So they do," said Logan, going and doing just that. "Now come on let's get some sleep or we will never make it through Colin's birthday plans. Trust me, the key to surving this weekend is to become nocturnal, dusk to dawn people."

"I don't see why you didn't sleep on the plane," said Rory.

"Last time I slept on a plane was when I was coming home from Colin's 21st birthday weekend in Los Angeles. I was due to have dinner at my parents house as soon as we had landed so I had to go straight there. It was only when I was greeted with horrified shrieks from my mother that I realised that Colin and Finn had dyed my hair brown with one of those spray cans while I was sleeping. Unless they have both passed out, I don't sleep around them."

"I can't imagine you with brown hair," said Rory, srcrewing her face up as she stared at him intently, trying to imagine it.

"Neither could they, that was the inspiration for their phase as amateur colourists," said Logan. "Don't worry they took pictures."

"You can always count on those two to thoroughly document their pranks."

"Well trust me, it is not a good look for me, so when you do see the photos minimal mocking would be appreciated," said Logan.

"How appreciative?" asked Rory.

"Ace my appreciation will lead to anything but rest for either of us," said Logan.

"You're right, I'm just going to go change into my PJs to get some sleep."

Logan frowned, that was not how that was supposed to have went. It was official, he was getting old.

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"This can not be how I'm spending my birthday," Colin complained.

"You're the one who let him choose where we were going next," Rosemary curtly reminded him.

"There are hundreds of brilliant clubs and bars in Vegas!" Colin argued, "How was I to know he would choose the one that had a karaoke machine with Right Said Fred?"

It was almost midnight and having went for dinner at seven, the group had been on a pub crawl ever since. Currently Finn was on stage writhing and dancing while singing his all time favourite song, 'I'm Too Sexy For This Shirt.' Rory had heard many stories about this particular party piece of Finn's but this was the first time she had caught the live performance. Much to everyone's embarrassment, Finn liked to strip down while singing this song, he was now down to his boxers as he prepared for his big finale. "I'm to sexy for this shirt, too sext for this shirt, so sexy it hurts," Finn crooned.

"Well Ace in roughly thirty seconds you will no longer be the only person at this table who has not seen Finn naked," said Logan.

"And we must warn you, after you have seen Full Frontal Finn, you will never be able to close your eyes again," said Juliet.

"Or leave them open for too long for fear you will see it again," added Stephanie.

"Really you just end up walking around doing this constant squinty thing," said Colin.

"That's why I'm getting crow's feet before my time," said Rosemary.

"But unlike the rest of us, Rosemary you're the only one who saw Finn naked in the comfort of your own bed," said Colin.

"Only that one time," protested Rosemary. "Besides we girls have seen all you guys naked thanks to some of your crazy Brigade stunts."

"And sometimes just drunken antics of your own accord," said Rory.

"Uh oh Colin, they've turned on us," said Logan.

"Geez anyone would think you didn't enjoy the sight of our studly naked bodies," said Colin.

"I don't even have a reply for that!" said Stephanie.

"Says the only girl at the table who has seen Colin naked in the comfort of her own bed," said Rosemary triumphantly, taking delight at the sight of Colin and Stephanie's paling faces.

"Only that one time," Stephanie protested.

"And I do believe it was in Colin's bed," said Logan, adding fuel to the fire.

"You told him about that!" said Stephanie, slapping Colin swiftly on the arm.

"He saw you leave that morning!" Colin reminded her.

"From the only girl at the table who hasn't seen any of the guys naked in a bed, can we please stop this who saw who naked where conversation?" asked Juliet.

"Didn't Finn walk in on you naked in the shower one day?" asked Colin.

"How is that ending it?" asked Stephanie, slapping him again.

"Wow I never knew you were all quite as close as this," teased Rory.

"Says the smug girl who has the steady boyfriend," Rosemary bitterly muttered.

"And they're off!" said Colin.

"What are?"

"Finn's boxers," he said. "They just landed on top of that red haired woman's head."

"Oh great now her boyfriend is looking angry and chasing after Finn," said Logan. "Colin come on, you know the drill by now."

"I'll gather up his clothes, you stop the fight," said Colin, taking another drink before heading in the direction of the scene Finn had just caused.

Watching their friends try to diffuse the ridiculous situation, the girls looked at each other. "You know as much as we mock them," said Juliet, "I can't help but think that since we hang out with them . . ."

"See them naked," added Stephanie.

"Occassionally sleep with them," said Rosemary.

"Actually admit to dating them," said Rory.

Logan was talking to the angry boyfriend while Colin gave Finn back his clothes and tried to pacify him as he swung his boxers around above his head screaming at the top of his voice, "Sanctuary! Sanctuary!"

"Right," said Juliet, "So maybe we are the stupid ones?"

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It was Sunday night and they were packing to head home. Other than the incident in the karaoke bar the trip had been a success, Colin proclaiming it his best birthday ever. It had been good for Rory and Logan as well, who had enjoyed escaping all the pressures that ordinary day life had been putting on them. Logan had told made sure that he could not be contacted unless it was an emergency and apparently the weekend had been emergency free for Huntzberger Publishing.

"I can't believe school starts again tomorrow," said Rory, putting her make up bag into her case. "Where did the summer go?"

"Where did the last four years go? This is my last first day back at Yale," said Logan.

"Yeah and a year after you should have had it," she reminded him.

"Is anyone ever going to let me forget that I took a year off school?" asked Logan.

"Nope, I'm making sure it goes on your gravestone."

"Oh so you plan on sticking around that long?"

"No, I just plan on coming back right at the end to try and claim my rightful part of the Huntzberger fortune and maybe ease Finn's suffering at the wake with a little Gilmore love."

"You'd make his lifetime."

"That's the plan," smiled Rory. "Can you check there is nothing left in the bathroom?"

"Sure," said Logan, zipping up his bag before heading into the en suite to make sure they had not forgotten anything. "Tomorrow is going to be so hectic," he said reappearing. "I have to go and get my class schedule and talk to all my teachers about getting assignments in advance so I actually have a chance to get them done and then I have a lunchtime meeting in back in Hartford. I have no idea when I am going to find the time to get all the back to school stuff I need."

"You haven't got that yet? I've had mine in for a month," said Rory.

"Yes but we can't all be little Miss Organised can we?" teased Logan.

"Besides don't you have an assisstant or something you can make do things like that for you?"

"Yes but the man can't even make a decent cup of coffee so I certainly couldn't trust him with something as important as picking out my stationary," said Logan.

"Wow I never really realised before just how much of an effect I've had on you," said Rory happily. "I mean I've raised your coffee standards so that you don't just accept any of that old regular strength crap that you used to drink and you've learnt the value of well chosen stationary."

"Never think that fifteen minute lecture on postit notes was a waste of time. I've learnt so much from it," said Logan.

"Well since you have been such a good student I could always reward you by getting whatever you need for you, I know how busy you are," offered Rory.

"Really?"

"Yeah I mean stationary shopping is one of my favourite past times, I can always stock up on some extra stuff for myself and I know what you like so if you think I can be trusted with it I would be happy to go,"

"That would be great," said Logan, kissing her. "You know this was a really good weekend."

"Yes it was," Rory agreed.

"Your mother and Colin should get engaged and have birthdays more often," said Logan. "I mean three nights out in a row enjoying myself, it almost feels like I have a social life again."

"Well you deserve to enjoy yourself, you have worked very hard recently. I'm really proud of you, everyone is," said Rory. Much to her surprise, Logan appeared to be slightly embarrassed by this comment.

"Who would have thought it?"


	8. The Incredible Shrinking Couple

**The Reigning Huntzberger**

_Chapter Eight: The Incredible Shrinking Couple_

Rory Gilmore stomped into the house, dropping her bag in the hall before going in search of her mother. She was in a foul mood, having suffered through a really bad day, and had came home in search of a book she needed for one of her classes. "Mom, are you here?" she called.

"Kitchen!"

Rory made her way into the kitchen and found Lorelai sitting at the table drinking coffee and nibbling on a pop tart, while flicking through the latest edition of US Weekly. "Oh thank God caffeine!" said Rory, noticing the coffee pot was full bar one cupful and still steaming hot.

"What, was that, 'Hi, mommy, I love you mommy, I missed you mommy, how are you mommy!' in Yalie?" asked Lorelai while Rory got herself a cup and filled it up with the recently made coffee, taking a gulp of it and filling it up again before making her way to the table, deliberately ignoring Lorelai's chiper comment.

"I wasn't expecting to see you today," said Lorelai, examining her daughter carefully.

"Yeah well sorry to disappoint you but here I am," grumbled Rory.

"You're in a bad mood," Lorelai noticed.

"Bad day," said Rory slumping in one of the kitchen chairs, her brow furrowed.

"Figured, what happened?"

"Well first of all Colin messed up the time of our flight home and we ended up missing our flight and the next one we could get didn't get us in until eight o'clock which meant I had to go straight to Yale, no time to sleep, shower, change my clothes or anything really. I had to face my professors on no sleep and it was during my first class that my hangover kicked in. Something tells me I didn't make the best impression," said Rory, gently rubbing her temples.

"No sleep at all? Why didn't you sleep on the plane?" asked Lorelai.

"Because Colin and Finn wouldn't pass out!" complained Rory. "They have some sort of superhuman ability to bounce about on no sleep."

"Sweetie, did that pass for a logical explanation for why _you _couldn't sleep on the plane in your head?" asked Lorelai.

"In case they dyed my hair," explained Rory, before noticing the continuing look of confusionon her mom's face. "It's a whole thing, never mind," giving a heavy sigh and a dismissive wave of her hand, too tired amongst other things to try and explain the precautions that needed to be taken when you were friends with Colin and Finn.

"Well did you have fun in Vegas?" asked Lorelai, genuinely interested and trying to get a decent conversation going.

"Yeah, a great time, which has lead to my current state," said Rory. "When we weren't out having fun we were throwing suite parties."

"No trips to cute little wedding chapels?"

"Mom!"

"Just checking," said Lorelai, "No need to get all defensive. I mean I was the one who warned you about the crazy effects the long island ice tea has on us Gilmores."

"You know if I had been feeling like myself rather than whoever it is that stole my body and did horrible things to it before giving it back to me, I would have taken great pleasure in telling you we did get married just to mess with you. You would have deserved it," said Rory.

Lorelai gasped in horror, "That would have been so mean! You truly are the daughter I raised!"

"Yeah, yeah good for me," said Rory. "Anyway I just came home to see if I had left a textbook here from last year. I want to go over some stuff just to refresh my memory then I have to go stationary shopping for Logan."

"Wow, girlfriend to errand girl in one foul swoop," Lorelai commented.

"Well he was busy and I was in a much bettter mood when I offered," said Rory.

"Well maybe it will cheer you up, after all aren't you the one that says there's nothing better than a new packet of note cards?"

"Yeah," muttered Rory, thinking about this.

"And you could always buy yourself something pretty while you're there," suggested Lorelai, smiling in triumph when the corners of Rory's mouth began to twitch a little at the idea and she sat up a little straighter.

"That might be kind of nice," Rory admitted. "I do have my eye on this really cute notebook. It's pink with purple spirals on it and it is narrow ruled which means I can get more notes on to the one page making cramming more efficient."

"That sounds perfect," said Lorelai, getting up to put on a fresh pot of coffee, Rory having drank what she had planned to be her second and third cup. "So do you have to go straight away or do you want to go to Luke's and have him make you some of his amazing hangover curing pancakes?"

Rory managed a full smile at the thought of this, instantly brightening up. "Luke's it is."

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Later that night Rory was lying in bed, reading a book when a thought occurred to her. Reaching for her cell phone she hit Logan's number. It went to voicemail and when she tried his apartment phone it rang out until also putting her through to his answering machine, "Hey it's Logan either I'm not here or I don't want to talk to you but leave a message after the tone anyway and you'll soon find out which."

Rolling her eyes, Rory left her message. "So I was just reflecting on the first day back after summer when it occurred to me that it has been a year since we first met. You with your arm around a random girl being a complete ass to my friend before promtly forgetting that I exsisted until the next day when you continued to be an ass and told me to refer to you as 'Master and Commander.' You know it really does mystify me that you don't get spit on more often. Who would have thought we'd end up where we are? Anyway just thought I'd share and to see if your day was as bad as mine and since you haven't made it home yet I'm going to guess it either managed to be worse or picked up at the end and you are currently out with the guys again, I really don't know how you people do this 24/7 partying, I'm exhausted after one long weekend. Call me tomorrow, and we can meet up and I'll give you the stuff I bought, bye." She hung up and went back to her book, it really was strange how much things had changed in a year.

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A few hours later when Logan finally made it home after having to deal with everything that had come up at the office while he was in Vegas, Logan was exhausted both mentally and physically and rather than fall into bed to get some much needed sleep he had to start preparing for his classes the next day. He now understood why he had been avoiding all of this responsibility malarkey his whole life.

Seeing he had new messages he hit the button to play them, getting the books he needed out of his bag while he listened to one from his mother, begging him to drop by the house at some point during the week, one from Colin asking if Logan knew who Stacey was and why he had her number scrawled on his leg in brown lipstick and one from Rory. As he listened to her voice echo throughout his apartment he smiled, part at the memory she was reminding him of and part just from being glad to have one remotely sane, grounded person in his life.

Checking the time he relalised it would be too late to call her back now, as if she was lucky she would have made it to sleep by now, but he made a mental note to try and reach her before her first class in the morning to arrange to meet up for lunch. Sighing, he rubbed the back of his neck while putting on some coffee, it was going to be a long night before he made it to bed yet.

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Rory groaned as she reached her door, too exhausted to go through the long and tedious process required to get inside thanks to Paris' extreme paranoia. It had been another long day that had started off with her sleeping in, as last night she had fallen asleep before remembering to set her alarm clock and so again not having time to shower, make herself presentable, eat or get coffee. At least today she did not have to put up with a thumping hangover.

She had also not seen or heard from Logan all day, partly because she had made herself very difficult to contact by leaving her cell phone among the items she neglected to lift that morning in her frenzied scurry out of the apartment when trying to make it to class on time. She had also made several deliberate attempts to run into him throughout the day by hitting his favourite places on campus but to no avail. She hadn't even seen Colin or Finn around all day and she had not even bothered to ask anyone at the paper if they has seen him, figuring it would be completely fruitless.

Finally making it inside, Rory took off her jacket and went to get a soda from her fridge. Picking up her cell phone she listened to her voicemail to find that there was a message from Logan, "Hey it's me I was trying to catch you before you went to class, made more difficult by not knowing when your first class is but thought I'd try anyway. Got your message last night, what can I say, didn't make much of an impression the first time Ace but the second one sure as hell stuck. I don't tend to forget pretty girls who hate me on sight and compare me to Judy Dench, well I can't say that with complete certainty since you've been the only one but give I'm sure I could arrange to have some sort of experiment carried out and I'll get back to you with the results in some sort of pie chart or scatter graph, nice and organised, just the way you like. Anyway call me when you get this, maybe we could meet up for lunch or something. Talk to you soon."

Rory gave a groan of frustration, if only she had remembered to lift her cell phone she could have had lunch with Logan which most certainly would have made her day better, if not only because it would be someone she could rant freely to which would help her get it all out of her system. Punching in his number to ring him, her frustration was heightened when it went straight to voicemail. "Hey it's me, sorry I didn't call you back sooner but my cell was in the apartment all day. Just checking in, call me back." Snappping her cell phone shut, she flopped on to the sofa and sipped her drink before turning on the TV, she felt like she deserved a little mindless television break before she got stuck into her studying.

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The next morning Rory was walking through the campus in between classes heading for her favourite coffee cart, in desperate need of a top up for her dropping caffeine levels. Having made it to class with time to spare that morning, completely organised and prepared for the day ahead, today had been much smoother than the previous two, much to her relief. She was not trained to cope with such hectic, disorganised days. She was about to join the queue when she spotted Colin reading on a near by bench.

"Hi Colin."

"Hello, getting some coffee?" he asked knowingly.

"What can I say? My routine is set. So, um, have you heard from Logan recently? I haven't seen him since we got home."

"Yeah I was talking to him briefly this morning, he had a 10am flight to California to catch," Colin told her.

"He's in California?" asked Rory surprised.

"Well currently he is on his way. I'm sure he must have left you a message or something."

Quickly checking her voicemail she found that there was indeed a message from Logan telling her he was going to California for a few days. It must have been left when her phone ran out of charge last night and switched itself off.

"You don't look very happy," Colin noted.

"We've just been missing each other a lot recently," said Rory.

"Well seeing as lover boy is at the other side of the country why don't you come out with us tonight?" offered Colin. "You look like you could use some cheering up and although I think the girls are busy, I can at least speak for Finn and myself when I say we would be delighted by your company."

"I don't know," said Rory, chewing on her bottom lip in consideration. "I have a bit of work to do."

"That's what mornings are for, come on!" Colin encouraged her.

"Alright, yeah it sounds like fun," said Rory conceding, figuring it would do her some good.

"Great! The pub at around eight?"

"Sounds good."

"OK then, I have a class to attend, I'll see you later Gilmore," said Colin, heading back towards the main building.

"Bye Colin!" Rory said, going over to the coffee cart, today was definitely an improvement on yesterday. If she was not able to spend time with Logan then Colin and Finn would be fine stand-ins.

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Rory entered the Yale Daily Newsroom the next afternoon to finish her article to find Paris screaming at Darren, one of their sports writers. "What did I tell you about split infinitives? I will not tolerate them in this paper and if you continue to try and sneak them past me you will quickly find yourself without a paycheck!"

"You don't pay me," said Darren, a little nervous under the death glare of the raging Paris Gellar.

"Is it any wonder with you spurning out crap like this? Fix it!" she demanded before storming off back in the direction of her office.

"Hi Paris," said Rory, a little wary.

"Boy am I happy to see you," said Paris. "You're the only one around here who I can count on to keep up the standard of the paper. You and that boyfriend of yours."

"Logan?" asked Rory, confused.

"Yeah I was pretty shocked too. Warren Beaty Junior was on the phone earlier making sure I got the article he sent it. It was pretty good too, wasn't too much that needed changing, not a split infinitive in sight," said Paris, busying herself with some of the papers in front of her, a thick red marker poised over them. "Really I was surprised that he bothered to send in an article at all but I guess that lecture I gave him on Monday must of really did the job and as much as I loathe his normally flaky, lazy ways, the boy can write, it must be genetic or something."

"You were speaking to Logan?" asked Rory. It was Thursday now and the two of them were firmly locked into their frustrating game of phone tag since Monday and she had still not managed to have an actual conversation with him and the new time difference between them had certainly not helped matters.

"Yeah he popped by here for a few minutes on Monday, looking for you I think but you had been, gone and left so I took the opportunity to corner him and tell him he better buck up and become a dependable journalist for the paper or there would be hell to pay. Then I spoke on the phone to him very briefly earlier, confirming I got his article," said Paris. "Where is he anyway?"

"California," said Rory, "So you've spoken to Logan twice this week?"

"Yes," said Paris, a little confused about the nature of the question.

"I'm sorry but this is just getting ridiculous!" exclaimed Rory. "That's twice more than I have! The universe is seriously messing with me, I can't take it, everyone other than me seems to be able to have a proper conversation with him, why can't I? I'd settle for a quick phone call or anything that isn't a freaking voicemail message.

"Are you OK?" asked Paris, "I don't think you're breathing anymore and you haven't blinked in a while. Your eyeballs could dry up."

"I'm fine," said Rory through gritted teeth. "I'm just going to go over to my desk and finish my article, then go get some coffee, go home and scream into a pillow."

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Logan sat on his bed in his hotel room, exhausted after a series of meetings. He briefly considered trying to ring Rory but he knew it was pointless, she would only have forgotten her cell phone or it would be out of charge or turned off or she would be somewhere with too poor of a signal for him to get through. He was beginning to think they were cursed or at the very least the universe was mocking him. Maybe karma was finally kicking in with a good dollop of irony after all the years he had spent dodging phone calls from girls that he did not want to see or speak to again.

Reaching for his laptop, he opened it and began typing up an email to send with her. He was aware how impersonal it was but if he was put through to her voicemail greeting message one more time he might throw the lamp on the nightstand up against the wall. It was not that he did not find some morsel of comfort in the sound of her voice but the feeling of disappointment and building frustration when he realised that once again he was not going to get to speak with his girlfriend would most likely send him over the edge.

He tapped a quick message on the keys, telling her how much he missed her, how crap it was that they were continually missing each other, what he had been getting up to and the details of when he was getting home. Unfortunately his stay there had been extended and would now not make it back to New Haven until Sunday night. His first week back at college and he had only made it through two full days of classes. He had been trying to keep up by reading through the few textbooks he had brought with him but his mind was whirling with a thousand other things that he was finding it difficult to actually learn. It was all beginning to get out of control.

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That night Rory had again found herself out with Colin and Finn. She had enjoyed herself the previous night and had managed to get all of her work done for that day so being in need of a release she saw nothing wrong with going for a repeat performance. So far she had found that going out with friends was much more effective and certainly a lot saner than screaming into pillows plus she actually got to enjoy herself as well as relieving some stress and frustration. Colin and Finn had a knack for helping her put her worries aside for at least a few hours and loosening up. When she was out with them she rarely had a spare moment to stop and think about anything other than when she needed a refill. They were drinking and laughing and generally having a good time, her and Colin especially enjoying themselves as they watched Finn rather fruitlessly attempt to worm his way into a pretty redhead's affections and her bed. They had started a pool with all the regulars to try a guess how many times Finn would get slapped that night. A guy in one of Colin's classes had won with a guess of five slaps.

"Are you sure you are alright getting home by yourself?" asked Colin, gently slurring his words as the night drew to a close. "I wouldn't want Logan beating the crap out of me for finding out I didn't make sure you got home OK."

"I'll be fine," Rory assured them. "It's not that far and the fresh air will do me some good."

"Alright then we shall bid you a very goodnight fair lady," said Colin, who suddenly was very English as he gave a bow before walking off with a swagger and his nose in the air. "Come on Finn old chap, to bed we shall go."

"See you tomorrow love!" Finn called over to her before stumbling off in what he hoped was the general direction of his dorm.

Alone again, Rory found herself heading for Logan's apartment rather than her own. She was not really sure why but she had not been there all week, and in her tipsy state she figured it would help her feel less estranged from him than she did. When she finally reached his apartment, she fumbled in her bag for several minutes looking for the key, giving a whoop of victory when she managed to not only retrieve it from her purse but successfully slide it into the lock on the first attempt.

Closing the door behind her she gave a contented sigh, feeling happy to be back in a place where Logan's presence was strongly felt. She headed for the bedroom. Sitting on the bed, she set his alarm clock to ensure she would get up in time to stop by her apartment and made it to class on time the next day. She kicked off her shoes and dumped her coat on the floor before climbing under the covers and falling asleep.

The next morning she groaned as the alarm clock woke her up. Quickly turning it off she rolled over in the bed, slightly smiling when she realised where she was and frowning when she realised she was there alone. Once she had showered she found herself in one of Logan's shirts, despite having a change of clothes at his apartment. She knew she was being overly sentimental, if not bordering on scary and stalkerish, but she was really missing him and having spent the night in his bed where she could sort of pick up his scent from his pillow she did not want to completely cut herself off from him for the rest of the day. (There was that scary stalker part rising up again.)

Rory only had a few classes that day and having attended them she decided to make her way home to Stars Hollow, feeling in need of a good chat with Lorelai who always had the ability to make her feel better. She got there about lunch hour and found her mother at the Dragonfly Inn. "Hi mom," she said, walking into the busy kitchen. "Hi Sookie."

"Hey Rory!" said Lorelai, pleased to see her. "Two unexpected visits in one week? What do you want?" she asked suspiciously.

"A pony," Rory chirped. "But I'd settle for lunch with you."

"Oh please you show up here at lunch hour and you know you aren't getting to leave without Sookie forcefeeding you," said Lorelai.

"Today lunch is a mixed grill with garlic potatoes," said Sookie, who was carefully stirring the contents of a pot.

"That sounds great," said Rory, "All I've had to eat today were two tacos which did their job but I think are beginning to mess with my stomach."

Lorelai frowned as they headed for the dining room and found a table. "Tacos?"

"Yeah I was out with Colin and Finn last night," said Rory.

"No Logan?"

"Nope. Logan is in California on business and we keep missing each other on the phone, it's getting really irritating. I haven't actually spoken to him or seen him since we got back from Vegas," she said.

"Well that sucks," said Lorelai sympathetically. "So Colin and Finn were just trying to cheer you up?"

"Something like that. Well it was that on Wednesday night and it really worked so yesterday when I still hadn't spoken to Logan I figured one good turn deserves another and although parts of the nights are hazy I'm relatively sure I had a really good time. What?" asked Rory when she noticed a concerned look on Lorelai's face.

Lorelai hesitated, not sure how Rory was going to react to what she had to say, "It's just that going out on a school night and drinking, well that's not really you Rory."

"I know, it's not like it's a regular thing . . . it's just been a bad week," said Rory.

"I get that, I do," said Lorelai, "But it just concerns me that your reaction is to drown away your sorrows."

"That's not what I'm doing," said Rory defensively. "I'm just going out and having some fun, it's no big deal."

"Maybe not now but I worry that it could be. I don't want you to become the girl that goes out and gets drunk everytime she has a problem," said Lorelai earnestly.

"I can't believe we are having this conversation," said Rory, somewhat irritated by the nature of the conversation. "You're completely over reacting! I went out for a few drinks with some friends. It's college, it's normal."

"But not for you! This is your third hangover this week Rory, I don't think I've ever seen you hungover three times in your entire life!"

"I'm older now," said Rory.

"Still not twenty one though," commented Lorelai.

"Oh don't give me that," said Rory. "My twenty first birthday isn't even two months away and you drank when you were sixteen!"

"Yeah but do you really want to do everything I did at sixteen?" asked Lorelai. "I'm happy with my life Rory and how I lived it but it's never been the way you've lived yours or how I want you to. I'm just saying that maybe you shouldn't be going out drinking on a school night, that was it, I didn't mean to start anything."

"Yeah but you are saying it like I'm going to turn into some raging alcoholic!" said Rory, who by now was quite angry. "You know me, you know how careful and practical I am and I don't think it's fair that you are lecturing me because I'm going out with my friends."

"Well I'm sorry for showing concern for my twenty year old daughter who is coming home with hangovers after class!"

"Good because it's none of your business!" said Rory, getting up and storming out, unwilling to sit there and be lectured by her mother any longer. When she made it to her car, she pulled out her cell phone and dialed Logan's number, upset and in need of someone to talk to. "Please pick up, please be there," she mumbled as the phone started to ring, hitting the wheel of her car in frustration when she heard his voicemail message. "Hey it's Logan you know the drill. Ace if this is you, and it probably is because everyone else who I don't particularly want or need to talk to seems to get through to me. Yes Finn, I'm talking about you, stop calling me, I have no opinion on your lunch choices. Anyway Ace will try to get in touch with you soon, I'm going crazy not talking to you, bye."

Refusing to leave another message on his answering service, Rory snapped her phone shut and pulled out of the Dragonfly Inn car park, fighting back the tears that threatened to spill over both her fight with her mother and at the ridiculous situation she and Logan found themselves in.

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Finn couldn't help but raise a curious eyebrow when he opened his door to find Rory on the other side, "Rory love, what a delightful surprise! You so rarely visit."

"Well I thought I'd drop by and have lunch with you guys," she said, offering him the bag of sandwiches she had picked up on her way over.

"You are an angel," said Finn, "I've been having the hardest time recently making lunch related decisions. Colin! We have company, and she brought lunch!"

A moment after this, Colin appearred from his room, also surprised to find Rory in their dorm room. "Hey Gilmore, what two nights in our company and now you can't stay away?"

"Something like that," said Rory faintly with a polite smile, taking a sandwich out of the bag after Finn had chosen one. She slipped into her own world while Colin and Finn began arguing as apparently Finn had taken the sandwich he knew Colin would have wanted.

"Rory love, is everything alright?" asked Finn, finally when the sandwich debacle was over. "You seem a bit out of it."

"Uh, yeah, everything is fine," she muttered so unconvincingly that she received dubious looks from the rather dense Colin and Finn. "I had a fight with my mom," she admitted with a sigh. Colin and Finn shared a quick look of panic with each other, unsure how to proceed. They never were good with these types of things and made sure that they rarely found themselves in such a position. Feeling a moment of courage, Colin decided to give it a go. "So um, do you want to, you know . . .talk about it?" he asked cautiously, he and his Australian friend visibly relaxing when Rory gave a small shake of her head.

"No, it's OK," said Rory. She did want to talk about it, but as much as she loved Colin and Finn they were not the men for the job. She had really came to them for some company and some cheering up which seemed to be her main motivation for spending time with them these days. Colin quickly changed the subject to one of Finn's latest exploits, a colourful story which lifted Rory's mood somewhat but not as much as it should have done.

In the evening they went out for a couple of drinks but overcome by all the thoughts and emotions whirling around in her, Rory made her goodbyes very early on in the night and found herself back in Logan's empty apartment. Lying down on the sofa, she found herself emotionally exhausted, both from the fight with her Lorelai and not having Logan there with her and despite the time, she quickly fell asleep.


	9. Rory Can See His Face

**The Reigning Huntzberger**

_Chapter Nine: Rory Can See His Face._

Rory found herself stirring as the sweet scent of coffee began to reach her nostrils. She slowly opened her eyes and the first thing she saw was the clock. It was just after seven and as it was a Saturday she was free until eleven when she had to go to the Fairfield Eagle, so she closed her eyes again.

It was a few seconds later when it occurred to her she was on a bed, which as far as she remembered was not where she had fallen asleep and where was that coffee smell coming from? Maybe this was just a particularly vivid dream? Yes, that must be it, she thought, trying make herself comfortable for another few hours of sleep. Rolling over to lie of her other side she heard a small chuckle which made her frown, her eyes still closed. Finally realising that she was not still dreaming, she opened her eyes to see Logan lying on his side beside her in the bed, watching her with amusement.

"Good morning Ace."

She flung herself at him, closing the few centimetres between them, wrapping her arms tightly around him and burying her face in his neck. "I'm so happy to see you," she said, her words coming out muffled as she snuggled into him.

"Same here," smiled Logan.

"When did you get back?" asked Rory.

"A few hours ago. Colin rang me when you left their place last night to get ready before going out with them, he said you'd had a fight with your mom so I booked the next flight home. I came back here to drop off my things and found you asleep on my couch."

"You should have woke me," said Rory.

"I couldn't bring myself to, you look so adorable when you sleep," said Logan. "So I relocated you to the much more comfortable bed. You were out cold, didn't even stir. I didn't know what time you had to be in Fairfield for so I figured I'd put on some coffee and gently bring you out of your coma like state just in case."

"I'm not due at the paper until eleven."

"Sorry."

"Don't be, I'm just so happy to see you," said Rory. "So you flew all the way back here just because I had a fight with my mom?"

"Is that so crazy?" asked Logan, slightly afraid of her answer.

"Maybe, but it's good crazy and I've done much more crazy things, a lot more recently than you might think. I'm just grateful," she said.

"Well I was just waiting on an excuse to get back and I know you and your mom don't fight that often and when you do it's a pretty big deal so here I am," said Logan.

"Thank you," said Rory, kissing him, marvelling at the security and comfort of his embrace.

"So how about I go to the kitchen and pour you some coffee and you can talk about it if you want?" suggested Logan, who began to sit up to get out of the bed when Rory pulled him back down to her level.

"No, not yet, let's just stay here like this for a while longer," said Rory happily.

Smiling, Logan kissed her forehead, "Wow, being chosen over coffee, high compliment."

"The highest," said Rory, content lying beside him after all their days apart.

An hour later, Rory had finally allowed Logan to go to the kitchen to make a new batch of coffee as the first one had long gone cold and Rory had told him all about the fight with Lorelai. "I just got so frustrated with her," said Rory, "She was talking to me like I was like a teenager gone wild or something."

"Well I'm not exactly great with advice so the best I can do is just to tell you to get it over with and go talk to her rather than moping about here avoiding her for the next few days. Knowing you, you'll both apologise and five minutes later be talking about the latest E! True Hollywood Story," said Logan.

"I don't like it when you're not here," said Rory, feeling much better from just getting everything off her chest. Logan let her rant and ramble all she wanted and she needed that.

"Me neither."

"Good. So we are agreed you're never going to not be here again?"

"Well I can't exactly make that promise," chuckled Logan when Rory stuck out her bottom lip in a very successful pout. "So how about we get ready and go out for breakfast before class?"

"Sounds good," said Rory, getting up and taking a fresh change of clothes out of the drawer where she kept a few things at his place and laid them out on the bed.

"So by the way, why exactly were you wearing my favourite shirt?" he asked.

"Because you weren't here."

"Fair enough," said Logan with a smile as Rory headed for the shower.

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Taking a deep breath, Rory opened the door to the Gilmore household, worrying about what she was going to say to her mother. In retrospect the fight really had just spiralled out of control, Rory knew she had been overly sensitive and that she had changed a lot. Her interests were becoming more diverse, her lifestyle was more balanced, she was making new friends with the sort of people she looked down on somewhat in high school so naturally her mother had cause for concern.

She found Lorelai in the living room, the phone sitting in front of her and Rory could not help but grin, picturing the sight that had been playing out for at least ten minutes, were Lorelai would pick up the phone then put it down again. Then she'd take a deep breath, dial Rory's number but hang up before it started actually ringing and so on and so on. "Hi," said Rory meekly, causing Lorelai to turn around, a look of surprise on her face.

"Hey," she said, "I was just about to call you."

"I figured," smiled Rory, gesturing in the general direction of her phone, before allowing her arms to drop again and hang awkwardly by her side, unsure what to do with them.

"I've been feeling really bad about yesterday," started Lorelai, "I was just a bit concerned but I know I came on too strong cause you're right, you are a responsible kid, if I know anything about you it's that you wouldn't let your school stuff slide but I guess it's just difficult for me to accept sometimes that you are growing up and that you're not that shy sixteen year old you once were."

"No mom, I'm sorry, I over reacted, and you were right to be concerned, I mean I am branching out a bit more and you just wanted to make sure that things were OK with me and I swear they are," said Rory, taking a few steps closer to her mother and further into the room,

"Good, I'm glad to hear it," said Lorelai, genuinely relieved.

"It's just that I never got the attraction to that sort of lifestyle before," said Rory. "I thought it was just for the wasters, but now I realise it's actually a lot of fun, being able to let loose every once in a while. I mean all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy and all that and well you've seen The Shining, you know that's not good."

"Yeah, I get what you mean and I definitely don't want you taking me away to some isolated hotel and coming at me with an axe, as much as I love snow I like occasional nice weather at least so that really isn't going to work out for me, I just want to make sure you get the balance right, you know?"

"I know, and I appreciate that. I'm just learning that sometimes going out and getting a little crazy with my friends can be just as enjoyable as curling up with a good book," said Rory.

"Well smack my ass and call me Sally, those are words I never thought I'd hear you say!" exclaimed Lorelai, an amused look mingled with genuine horror on her face as she teased her daughter. "Don't get me wrong and all, you know I was worried about you during your hermit, locked in your room constantly, days as well, I just don't want to see you on Girls Gone Wild anytime soon."

"I doubt there's any danger of that," laughed Rory, now standing in front of the sofa before sitting down beside Lorelai. "But speaking of, oh my God, did you see that new Tara Reid show on E!"

"Yes! Can you believe that now she's actually getting paid to get trashed and go to London or wherever?"

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Four weeks into the semester and Rory and Logan's lives were very much like the first week of the semester. Both were busy with school and work and finding it increasingly difficult to spend quality time together. Rory had kept on her job at the Fairfield Eagle, her professors were making sure that homework and research were taking up the vast majority of her free time and her supposed leisure time now consisted of writing articles for the Yale Daily News or doing much needed laundry.

Despite having to graduate this year for him to be able to work full time next year, Logan's duties for the Huntzberger Publishing Group had not lessened, in fact he was fairly sure he was going to more meetings than he had over the summer and at longer distances; why his father had ever felt the need to own a paper in South Africa, he would never know. As a result most of his courses he was learning through textbooks and he was doing his assignments on planes and trains and emailing them to his professors. None of them minded of course, they were so used to not seeing him in class anyway and actually receiving work from him was a pleasant new experience.

Walking though Yale one afternoon, Rory dialled Logan's number on her cell phone. "Hey Ace," he answered.

"Hey, was just wondering if you wanted to meet up for lunch today?"

"Sorry no can do, I have to video conference some guy in Japan during my lunch break, what about dinner?" he suggested.

"Can't I'm going to Stars Hollow to hang out with Lane tonight," said Rory. "The band have some new songs and they want to try out their new set on me. But I can call you later and we can try to make plans for tomorrow."

"Yeah that would be good," said Logan. "Hey where are your right now?"

"Heading for the paper, just passing the economics rooms," said Rory.

"Quick take a left now!" Logan said.

"But the paper is to the right," said Rory, confused.

"Ace!"

"OK, OK," said Rory, turning the next corridor to her left. "I know you don't like to spend time at the paper but I actually do."

"When you get to the end turn right."

"Where are you sending me?" asked Rory, doing as she was told.

"In my direction," said Logan. Rory grinned when Logan appeared around the corner and headed towards her. "Couldn't go the entire day without seeing you."

"Good to know," said Rory, before their lips met. Usually she would be firmly against such public displays of affection but recently she had failed to care. It was just so good to be spending any time together it did not particularly matter where they were. They finally broke apart a few minutes later and Logan glanced down at his watch. "Damn, I'm late for class, I'll call you later," he said quickly giving her another quick kiss before jogging off in the direction he came from.

Flushed, Rory quickly tried to fix her hair and readjust her clothes, deliberately ignoring the raised eyebrows and stares of the people around her as she headed back towards the paper with a large smile on her face.

This sort of event was becoming an increasingly common occurrence as they had less and less time for each other with their respective commitments growing and clashing school timetables and when they did see each other in passing moments they would both be overcome with everything they were feeling for each other which would result in very few actual conversations. If they ran into each other about Yale it was almost certain they would end up having a fumble in a closet or grope in a parking lot, only exchanging quick snippets of information while coming up for air. Any real communication was done mainly though cell phone conversations, emails or through Colin and Finn and so the couple were growing increasingly frustrated, in more than one way.

Later that day, Rory went into Luke's to wait for Lane to finish her shift and unsurprisingly Lorelai was there. "Rory!" she exclaimed. "I was just about to call you."

"Why?"

Lorelai looked at her in mild disbelief. "Why? _Why? _Rory, what day is it?"

"Wednesday."

"Wrong!"

"It's not Wednesday?" asked Rory. "I'm pretty sure it is, in fact I'm rather confident about it."

"No that's not what I meant," said Lorelai, slightly flustered.

"Then what did you mean? I don't really know how else, 'What day is it?' could have been interpreted other than you wanting to know what day it is."

"Hey, Rory, what day is it?" asked Lorelai loudly, wanting to get the conversation back to where she had intended it to be.

"Why I don't know, what day _is_ it?" Rory played along.

"Well Rory I'm glad you asked, because today just so happens to be twenty one days until your twenty first birthday!" Lorelai exclaimed excitedly. Rory considered rolling her eyes but knew this would be a bad idea seeing how hyper her mother was so instead broke into a smile and gave a small, excited clap. "Wow, I suppose it is, that never even occurred to me."

"It never occurred to you that there's twenty one days until Atlantic City? Twenty one days to martinis? To playing twenty one while you turn twenty one, getting twenty one things and twenty one guys and, oh wait slight problem in the plans there," said Lorelai.

"What you mean the way Logan and Luke will probably be firmly against us hooking up with twenty one guys?" asked Rory.

"Yes, but meh, what they don't know won't hurt them," said Lorelai dismissively.

"Mom!"

"Rory I'm sorry but when I drew up this plan I was envisaging us as young, crazy, single women and while I was three quarters right there is no way I could have predicted us both in happy, committed relationships!" ranted Lorelai. "It just seems improbable."

"Improbable or not it's reality so we'll just have to alter our plans slightly," said Rory.

"Oooh! We could both start huge fights and break up with them just before the trip, go, get our Atlantic City groove on, come back remorseful and get back together!" suggested Lorelai, pleased with her solution.

"How about we just get twenty one guy's phone numbers instead?"

Lorelai made a small noise of contemplation while she considered this. "Less in the moment fun but more chance of long time happiness . . . interesting. You might be on to something. Sure it's no game of 'One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty one: he's yours!' but it will do."

888888888888888888

The next evening, Rory and Logan were both at his apartment, sitting across the table from each other, typing away on their laptops working on their articles for the Yale Daily News. They had set aside those two hours as their alone time but with their equally large work loads, both owed Paris their contributions for the paper and so their work had spilled over into their time together.

"There!" exclaimed Logan triumphantly, pressing the send button to forward his newly finished article to the newsroom server. "Now it is you who is preventing us from having some quality time."

"I'm doing the best I can!" protested Rory, biting her lower lip in concentration. "It's not fair that you are a freakishly fast typer. We're going to have to steal that Press hat from the newsroom for you if you keep this up. You could be the Smitty to my Ace."

Logan gave a chuckle, "It would be my pleasure, although I'm a few steps ahead of you, I swiped the hat last year, I think it ended up in Finn's room."

"Ah, never to be seen again!" commented Rory. "Then we'll just have to track down another one for you cause you have been on journalistic fire recently! Paris is overjoyed, or well as overjoyed as Paris can be."

"What? Did the corners of her mouth twitch and threaten to give a smile?"

"Not quite that drastic. But you have went from being at the top of her hit list to her good graces."

"I'll be honest, I never thought I'd see the day when Paris would find anything nice to say to me other than, 'God forbid anyone with hair that blond actually hand in their article on time,'" said Logan.

Rory raised a questioning eyebrow, "And you took that as nice?"

"Well it was better than 'Don't worry, at your funeral no one will be able to see the imprint of my license plate on your body.' Besides she complimented on the blondness of my hair, ignoring that she herself has blond hair."

"She's selective like that, " Rory admitted. "Well don't get me wrong she still dislikes you, just not quite as violently as she used to, which with Paris means she practically considers you a friend."

"Sweet Knights of Columbus!" exclaimed Logan. "Well then I'd better keep up this whole being a dependable journalist thing so as to stop the whole hit and run scenario."

"Yes please!" said Rory. "I like you in one piece. So your article is done and you have already finished all of your homework," she commented.

"So?"

"And the other day, Finn swore he caught you studying."

"Since when has Finn been a reliable source?" asked Logan, somewhat uncomfortably.

"You're maturing!" teased Rory, an amused smile on her face, the mischievous twinkle in her eye brightening.

"No I'm not!" protested Logan.

"You're responsible!"

"Stop that!"

"A good student, savvy businessman, practically an adult!" Rory continued mercilessly, enjoying watching him squirm.

"Take that back!"

"Nope!" Rory shook her head defiantly.

"Fine then, I won't tell you what I was thinking of doing for your birthday," bargained Logan.

"I take it back! Consider it withdrawn, you are the most immature, responsible, juvenile twenty three year old on the planet," said Rory.

"That's what I like to here," grinned Logan. "So I know your actual birthday is going to be spent in Atlantic City with Lorelai..."

"Yeah but I'll be back for the weekend then I'm all yours," Rory reminded him.

"About that..." said Logan. "I found out today that I have to go to San Francisco that weekend."

"But aren't you going there at the end of next week for like five days?"

"Yes but there's a lot of things that need sorting out, that's not important though, but anyway I was thinking that the weekend after that we could go to New York, stay in the Plaza for two, three nights, catch a show, maybe Wicked, I know how much you've wanted to see it, you downloaded all the music, do whatever you want."

"Whatever I want?" asked Rory, raising an eyebrow inquiringly.

"Of course."

"Well I know you're busy so yeah, that sounds great," said Rory, kissing him on the cheek.

"Good, I want you to have the best birthday week ever," said Logan.

"I'm sure I will," said Rory. He was trying so hard, she could not let him know how disappointed she was that they would not be doing anything that close to her birthday. What he had planned sounded fantastic, but knowing that they again would be apart even at her birthday, tainted it.

88888888888888

It was now only a week until her twenty first birthday and Rory was making her way home for the weekend, away from the craziness of living with Paris and Doyle. Even her haven of Logan's apartment was no longer as comforting as it only reminded her that he wasn't there. "Mom, I'm home!" she called as he made her way into the living room with an armful of books and files.

"Hey hon, pizza is on its way," said Lorelai. "You look flustered."

"After the week I've had I wouldn't be surprised," said Rory, piling her books on to the coffee table before letting herself drop to the sofa.

"Let me guess," said Lorelai. "Heavy work load and you haven't seen Logan in a while."

"Am I that obvious?" asked Rory, frowning.

"No you have just encountered 'The Amazing Lorelai!' Once I buy myself a turban and a crystal ball I am all set," said Lorelai. "What can I say ever since you went back to school that has been your favourite tune."

Rory sighed, "Sorry I haven't been much fun recently. Anytime you've seen me I've either been doing laundry, studying or complaining about how long it has been since I've seen Logan, nine days by the way, or at Friday night dinner which I know you don't count as actual time spent together."

"Wow nine days, that's bad," said Lorelai sympathetically.

"Yep," said Rory nodding sadly. "But I'm not going to rant about it or get upset, I'm just going to accept that this is how things are. Logan is the head of a company and he has lots of responsibilities and meetings to attend and he can't always be here."

"So, you're not going to rant about it even a little bit?"

"Nope," said Rory determinedly, shaking her head in firm resolve. Lorelai gave her daughter a knowing look and counted to three in her head before Rory's rant started. _1 . . .2 . . 3 . . . _"It's just that I hate that the mental and physical aspects of our relationship have become mutually exclusive!" Rory complained. "I can either talk with him or be with him, we never have the time for both, so when we are together we just want to be as close as we possibly can, which by the way is getting rather embarrassing, I'm banned from the library for pete's sake! Me! The library! My favourite place on campus!"

"Wait, how did you get banned from the library?" asked Lorelai, confused.

Rory gave her a pointed look, "Well the last time I ran into Logan while I was there, it had been a couple of days since we had seen each other and next thing I know we are in a deserted part of the library getting hot and heavy in the stacks. Anyway…we kind of… knocked over this rather large pile of books and the librarian came to see what had happened, found us in a rather dishevelled state and suspended us from the library for a month."

"Well at least you have a fun anecdote for Friday night dinner. Sorry, not funny, continue," she said having received a sharp glare from Rory.

"Logan of course was rather amused by the entire incident because that is what he does, he manages to see the brighter side of things, but I was just embarrassed not to mention that now I have to pay Paris five dollars to go to the library for me every time I need to get a book out. For the first time this relationship is actually costing me money rather than saving me some. You know until Logan became invisible guy I never realised just how much of my food he pays for. I feel like some sort of gold digger."

"Slow down there Kanye, breathe for a second, you might like it," suggested Lorelai.

"You know what else I might like? Being with my boyfriend! It feels like I'm in a long distance relationship, which I know I'm not really, but still, short distance relationships seem pretty good about now, minute distance relationships, relationships that have no concept of personal space, that's what I might like!" rambled Rory.

"Rory, hon, seriously, inhale...exhale...highly underrated..."

"And I hate what state it gets me in, I mean I know I ramble, I'm a rambler, but this is out of control!" said Rory, "And I'm frustrated and emotional and I think I'm about to cry over a boy!"

"Well honey, it wouldn't be the first time, sorry, not helping, I know," said Lorelai.

Giving in, Rory took some deep breaths in an attempt to compose herself, "I miss him."

"I know, but it will get better, I'm sure of it," said Lorelai comfortingly.

"I hope so, cause I don't know if I can take this much longer."

"Look I know that things aren't ideal at the moment but I don't like seeing you worked up like this."

"It's not exactly thrilling for me either," Rory quipped. "God just listen to me, I sound like some deranged lunatic."

"Actually, sweetie, I hate to break it to you but you sound like you're in love."

"Mom. . ."

"I know, I know, we've been here before, but this time I'm not saying it to tease you or for my own personal amusement, although let's be honest they are one in the same," admitted Lorelai, "But you are extremely emotionally involved, and I can't see you, or anyone for that matter, be this upset over someone that they weren't in love with."

"I-I-"

"Kid, I'm not looking for a declaration, I'm just saying think about it, figure out what's going on with you," said Lorelai.

"OK," said Rory quietly, nodding her head. "So what episode is this?"

"Ooh, it's the one where Donna, goes to bake an apple crumble, but then realises that they're out of apples! Much hilarity ensues!"

The Gilmore girls watched the rest of the episode in silence, Rory not really taking it in, although as usual there was not much to actually take in, instead getting lost in her own thoughts and feelings. As the credits rolled and Lorelai started flicking through the channels, Rory knew.

"Mom?"

"Yeah?"

"I love him."

Lorelai smiled. "I know hon."


End file.
